lii 


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COPYRIGHT,   1899,  BY  SARAH   F.  HUGHES 
ALL  RIGHTS  RESERVED 

8  t  n  p>  A  r>  ?  «  t.  •  •  ,->.    p  5  • "  n 

Lib  j  ri/uU 


LETTERS 
AND  RECOLLECTIONS 


OF 


JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

EDITED  BY  HIS   DAUGHTER 

SARAH  FORBES  HUGHES 


IN  TWO  VOLUMES 
VOL.  I. 


•    •  •  •• 


BOSTON  AND  NEW  YORK 
HOUGHTON,  MIFFLIN  AND  COMPANY 
Camfcrfoge 


PREFACE 

ABOUT  twelve  years  ago  my  father  put  together 
in  manuscript  a  couple  of  volumes  of  reminiscences 
of  his  life ;  and  these,  together  with  a  vast  collec 
tion  of  letters  to  him,  press  copies  of  letters  from 
him,  and  other  papers,  he  left  in  my  charge,  mainly 
that  I  might  make  selections  from  the  whole  and 
put  them  into  more  definite  form  for  his  grand 
children. 

I  am  led  to  believe,  however,  that  his  life  and 
character  were  exceptional  enough  to  make  some 
account  of  him  of  general  interest.  With  the  view 
of  giving  this  to  the  public  I  have  made  extracts 
from  such  parts  of  his  notes  as  seem  to  be  to  the 
purpose,  and  have  selected  from  the  letters  and 
papers  those  which  explain  and  give  color  to  the 
scenes  and  events  recalled.  In  a  preliminary  chap 
ter  I  have  given  some  general  description  of  my 
father's  habits  and  characteristics,  such  as  may  help 
a  reader  who  did  not  know  him  the  better  to  under 
stand  what  follows.  I  publish  these  things  as  the 
record  of  an  American  citizen  who,  keeping  himself 


r>  o  r  ."  O  Q 
l^f  .-*  V'  \J  f^  ».-/ 


iv  PREFACE 

in  the  background,  never  stinted  work,  or  money, 
or  service  of  any  sort,  for  the  country  he  loved  so 
well. 

I  wish  to  return  most  grateful  thanks  to  all  the 
relatives,  now  surviving,  of  my  father's  correspond 
ents,  who  have  kindly  permitted  the  use  of  letters 
written  to  him.  Above  all,  I  wish  to  record  my 
deep  obligation  to  Professor  J.  B.  Thayer,  to  whom 
I  am  indebted  for  all  legal  notes ;  and  for  endless 
kindness  and  help,  in  more  ways  than  I  can  here 
enumerate,  in  the  preparation  of  this  work. 

S.  F.  H. 

MILTON,  July,  1899. 


CONTENTS  OF  VOLUME  I 


CHAPTER  I 

INTRODUCTION 

Genealogical.  —  Anecdotes  of  ancestors.  —  Business  and 
home  habits.  —  Intense  work  in  war  time.  —  Ways  of 
impressing  ideas.  —  Warrington's  pen  portrait.  —  Ways 
of  giving.  —  Petitioners.  —  Life  at  Naushon.  —  Business 
and  other  maxims.  —  Deer  hunts.  —  Duck-shooting.  — 
Freedom  from  accidents.  —  Romantic  side  of  character. 

—  Tastes.  —  Love  of  oratory.  —  O.  W.  Holmes's  poem 

on  eightieth  birthday 1 

CHAPTER  II 

SCHOOL   DAYS 

Birth  in  Bordeaux.  —  Childhood  in  Milton.  —  School  at 
Andover,  and  Round  Hill,  Northampton.  —  Boy  letters. 

—  Opinion  of  Headmaster  Cogswell.  —  Departure  from 
school,  aged  fifteen 37 

CHAPTER  III 

FIRST   VENTURES 

Experiences  of  counting-house  life  in  Boston.  —  Letters  to 
his  brother  Thomas  in  China.  —  Death  of  this  brother.  — 
First  voyage  to  China,  aged  seventeen.  —  Clerkship  in 
Russell  &  Co.,  Canton. — Appointed  confidential  agent 
of  Houqua.  —  Return  to  Boston,  aged  twenty.  —  Mar 
riage  to  Sarah  Hathaway  in  1834 53 


vi  CONTENTS  OF  VOLUME  I 

CHAPTER  IV 

LIFE  IN  CHINA 

Return  to  China.  —  Partnership  in  Russell  &  Co.  —  Sick 
ness  and  death  of  Handasyd  Cabot.  —  Trip  to  Manila 
with  Francis  Hathaway.  —  Fire  in  Canton.  —  Letter  to 

^  his  brother  Bennet  on  railroads.  —  Fancy  ball  given  at 
Macao.  —  Offended  Portuguese.  —  Voyage  home  in  1837  69 

CHAPTER  V 

TEN  YEARS   OF   BUSINESS 

Financial  crisis  of  1837.  —  Storm  weathered.  —  Trip  to 
Farrandsville,  Pennsylvania.  —  Rough  traveling.  —  Let 
ters  from  Houqua.  —  First  hearing  of  Wendell  Phillips. 

—  Boston   business.  —  Ships.  —  Instructions   to  captain 
of   Acbar.  —  Tree-planting.  —  Horses.  —  Johnny   Cra- 
paud :  his  epitaph.  —  Birth  of  twin  daughters,  1838  ;  of 
eldest   son,   William,  1840.  —  Death  of  brother-in-law, 
William  Hathaway.  —  Accident  on  trial  trip  of  schooner 
Ariel.  —  Views  of  safe  expenditure  by  a  merchant.  — 

\  Growing  interest  in  politics.  —  First  interest  in  railroads, 
1846.  —  Refusal  to  buy  land  in  Chicago.  —  Relief  for 
Irish  famine.  —  Mount  Savage  blast-furnaces,  etc. ; 
tedious  business.  —  Practical  joke 90 

CHAPTER  VI 

RAILROADS   AND   OTHER  ENTERPRISES. — SLAVERY 

Advice  to  commission  merchant  in  San  Francisco,  June, 
1849.  —  Opinion  on  expedition  to  Japan.  —  Letter  from 
Florida,  1852.  —  Trip  to  England,  1855 ;  letter  from 
London.  —  Letters  to  Nassau  Senior  and  Russell  Sturgis. 

—  Purchase  of  breadstuffs  for  Barings.  —  Exchange  of 
letters  with  J.  H.  Cowper  on  strained  relations  between 


CONTENTS  OF  VOLUME  I  vii 

North  and  South.  —  Succession  (1857)  to  Governor 
Swain  at  Naushon.  —  Decrease  of  mercantile  and  in 
crease  of  railroad  business.  —  Letter  to  George  Ashburner 
on  prospects  of  Chicago,  Burlington  and  Quincy  Rail 
road  „ 127 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE  BUSINESS  PANIC   OF  1857.  —  THE  IMPENDING  POLITICAL 
CRISIS 

William  Sturgis  on  Naushon  amusements.  —  Financial 
panic,  September,  1857.  —  Trip  to  England  for  Michigan 
Central  Railroad,  accompanied  by  two  daughters.  — 
Loan  obtained,  and  Barings  reassured  as  to  American 
credit.  —  Withdrawal  from  Whig  party.  —  Letter  to 
N.  M.  Beckwith,  January,  1858,  on  political  situation.  — 
Advice  to  abolitionists,  and  to  son  at  college.  —  Polit 
ical  turmoil.  —  John  Brown  a  guest  at  Milton;  his 
account  of  fighting  in  Kansas ;  his  death.  —  First  elec 
tion  of  Lincoln.  —  Letter  to  Nassau  Senior.  —  Death  of 
eldest  daughter.  —  Letters  from  widow  of  Alexis  de 
Tocqueville,  and  Charles  Sumner 165 


CHAPTER  VHI 

THE   BEGINNING   OF   WAR 

Peace  Congress  in  Washington,  February,  1861.  —  Plan 
for  relief  of  Fort  Sumter  defeated.  —  Massachusetts'  in 
fluence.  —  Opening  of  war.  —  Southern  press.  —  Help 
ing  Governor  Andrew.  —  Rescue  of  merchant  ship  from 
Norfolk.  —  Part  taken  in  dispatch  of  Massachusetts 
troops  to  the  South.  —  Purchase  of  steamers  for  State, 
and  instructions  to  captains  in  pursuit  of  Confederate  pri 
vateers.  —  Sundry  letters  on  politics.  —  Wendell  Phillips 
on  the  battle  of  Bull  Run.  —  Navy  bill.  —  Shipbrokers 
and  their  ways.  —  Letter  from  Assistant  Secretary  of 
the  Navy 187 


viii  CONTENTS  OF  VOLUME  I 

CHAPTER  IX 

THE  CONDUCT   OF  THE  WAR 

Right  of  privateering  upheld.  —  Exchange  of  letters  with 
C.  F.  Adams.  —  Sundry  letters  on  political  situation.  — 
Iron  plates  for  warships.  —  Correspondence  with  Nassau 
Senior  (autumn  1861)  on  the  war  and  Mason  and  Slidell  233 

CHAPTER  X 

THE  SANITARY   COMMISSION 

November,  1861,  commission  of  eldest  son  in  First  Massa 
chusetts  Cavalry.  —  Funds  sent  to  prisoners  in  the  South. 
—  Letter  to  Nassau  Senior  on  the  situation.  —  Action 
as  to  Sanitary  Commission.  —  Correspondence  with  Dr. 
Bellows  and  F.  L.  Olmsted 258 

CHAPTER  XI 

FINANCE  IN   WAR  TIME 

Fight  against  legal  tenders.  —  Correspondence  with  W.  P. 
Fessenden  and  W.  C.  Bryant  on  finance. — Various 
work  in  war  time.  —  Letters  to  Aspinwall,  Beckwith, 
Clifford,  Ripley,  and  Bryant 275 

CHAPTER  XII 

JOURNEY  TO   THE   SOUTH 

Charter  of  vessels  for  Navy  Department.  —  Ordered  South 
by  doctor.  —  Trip  to  Beaufort,  South  Carolina.  —  Letter 
home  descriptive  of  passage.  —  Charger  Billy.  —  The 
"  Gideonites."  —  Life  in  Beaufort  with  eldest  son  and 
his  regiment.  —  Yacht  Azalea.  —  General  Hunter  and 
enlistment  of  blacks.  —  Letter  to  Edward  Atkinson  on 
unfair  treatment  of  the  Educational  Commission  (Gideon 
ites)  292 


CONTENTS  OF  VOLUME  I  ix 

CHAPTER   XIII 

THE   PROSECUTION   OP   THE   WAR 

Correspondence  with  Parke  Godwin,  C.  B.  Sedgwick,  and 
Charles  Sumner,  June,  1862,  on  war  matters.  —  Letter 
from  Dr.  De  Wolf  to  Mrs.  Forbes.  —  Beginning  of  the 
New  England  Loyal  Publication  Society. — Minor  reforms 
needed. — Letter  from  Governor  Andrew. — Difficulties  in 
recruiting. — Appointment  of  General  Grant. — Prelimi 
nary  proclamation  of  emancipation.  —  Correspondence 
with  W.  C.  Bryant,  W.  P.  Fessenden,  and  Joshua  Bates 
on  the  situation.  —  Letters  from  Navy  Department  on 
fitting  out  of  Confederate  steamers  in  England.  —  Let 
ter  from  C.  B.  Sedgwick,  December,  1862,  on  state  of 
feeling  in  Washington.  —  Draft  of  electors'  letter  to 
President  Lincoln. — Letters  from  Charles  Sumner  on 
proclamation  of  emancipation 314 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

JOHN  M.  FORBES Frontispiece 

From  a  miniature  about  1832  by  Chenery,  an  English  min 
iature  painter  of  some  note  in  China  at  that  time.  Pa8e 

JOHN  M.  FORBES 132 

From  a  crayon  by  Seth  Cheney  made  about  1851. 

JOHN  M.  FORBES 160 

From  a  bust  by  his  granddaughter,  Edith  Forbes,  made 
from  daguerreotypes  taken  about  1856. 


"I  said  never  was  such  force,  good  meaning,  good  sense,  good 
action,  combined  with  such  domestic  lovely  behavior,  such  modesty 
and  persistent  preference  for  others.  Wherever  he  moved  he  was 
the  benefactor.  It  is  of  course  that  he  should  ride  well,  shoot  well, 
sail  well,  keep  house  well,  administer  affairs  well  ;  but  he  was  the 
best  talker,  also,  in  the  company  :  what  with  a  perpetual  practical 
wisdom,  with  an  eye  always  to  the  working  of  the  thing,  what  with 
the  multitude  and  distinction  of  his  facts  (and  one  detected  continu 
ally  that  he  had  a  hand  in  everything  that  has  been  done),  and  in 
the  temperance  with  which  he  parried  all  offense  and  opened  the 
eyes  of  the  person  he  talked  with  without  contradicting  him.  Yet  I 
said  to  myself,  How  little  this  man  suspects,  with  his  sympathy  for 
men  and  his  respect  for  lettered  and  scientific  people,  that  he  is  not 
likely,  in  any  company,  to  meet  a  man  superior  to  himself.  And  I 
think  this  is  a  good  country  that  can  bear  such  a  creature  as  he  is."— 
R.  W.  EMERSON  (of  J.  M.  Forbes).  —  Letters  and  Social  Aims,  River 
side  edition,  p.  100.  See,  also,  Emerson  in  Concord,  p.  121. 


LETTERS  AND  RECOLLECTIONS 

OF 

JOHN    MURRAY    FORBES 


CHAPTER  I 

INTRODUCTION 

IT  is  usual  to  give  some  account  of  a  man's  ances 
tors  when  beginning  the  story  of  his  life ;  but  in 
the  present  instance  a  memory  of  my  father's  feel 
ing  about  the  matter  prevents  my  following  such  a 
precedent  at  any  length. 

No  one  ever  spent  less  time  in  hunting  up  remote 
forbears  than  John  Murray  Forbes.  His  life  was 
too  full  for  such  researches,  which  he  declared  were 
always  likely  to  disclose  facts  quite  as  well  forgot 
ten  ;  summing  up  his  verdict  with  the  proverb, 
"  Let  sleeping  dogs  lie."  For  instance,  among  the 
family  traditions  is  one  of  a  Robert  Forbes  who  was 
said  to  have  won  his  bride,  Kate  Cameron,  by  obey 
ing  her  behest  and  killing  her  father's  slayer,  and 
then  to  have  married  her,  red-handed  from  the  fray. 
Of  this  and  similar  ancestors  my  father  only  re 
marked,  when  they  were  mentioned,  that  they  were 


2  JOHN  MURRAY  LFORBES 

probably  a  set  of  old  cattle  thieves;  and  he  took 
no  trouble  to  find  out  how  successful  their  forays 
might  have  been.  Friends  in  Scotland  have  sent 
us  an  account  of  one  Robert  Bennet  who,  according 
to  authentic  records,  bore  fine  and  imprisonment 
from  1662  to  1681  and  paid  first  £1200  and  after 
wards  various  other  fines,  amounting  altogether  to 
5000  "  marks/'  rather  than  give  up  going  to  hear 
the  "Kevd.  John  Blackadder"  and  other  beloved 
covenanting  preachers,  and  receiving  them  at  his 
house  when,  during  brief  periods  of  governmental 
leniency,  he  was  not  in  the  Tolbooth  gaol.  This  an 
cestor  would  have  had  my  father's  hearty  approval ; 
but  although  he  may  have  inherited  from  him  much 
of  his  determination  of  purpose  and  habit  of  carry 
ing  out  his  resolutions  at  all  cost,  I  fear  that  he 
would  not  have  followed  the  old  covenanter  in  any 
martyrdom  which  necessitated  the  hearing  of  long 
sermons  on  bleak  hillsides. 

However,  I  believe,  although  he  would  scarcely 
have  admitted  it,  that  the  well  known  Scotch  feel 
ing  of  "pride  in  being  a  Scotchman"  lay  hidden 
in  a  corner  of  his  heart.  Be  this  as  it  may,  at  least 
one  trait  came  to  him  from  the  old  Highland  clan, 
namely,  an  intense  interest  in  all  his  relatives  far 
and  near,  and  a  feeling  of  his  responsibility  towards 
them  to  the  sixth  generation.  The  thought  of  a 
relation's  becoming  bankrupt  was  horrible  to  him, 
and  many  a  plunge  he  took  into  distasteful  business 
in  order  to  prevent  such  a  catastrophe,  or  to  remedy 
it,  as  far  as  possible,  if  it  had  already  occurred. 


INTRODUCTION  3 

The  Forbeses  and  Bennets  were  united  in  America 
by  the  marriage,  in  1769,  of  Dorothy  Murray  (whose 
mother  was  Barbara  Bennet)  and  John  Forbes, 
then  of  Florida  but  originally  of  Deskrie,  Scotland, 
and  this  couple  were  the  parents  of  Ralph  Bennet 
Forbes,  and  grandparents  of  my  father,  John  Mur 
ray  Forbes.  His  mother  was  Margaret  Perkins, 
and  her  people,  to  some  of  whom  he  owed  his  start 
in  life,  he  valued  and  loved;  but  for  all  this  he 
could  never  refrain  from  repeating  a  joke  of  his 
cousin,  James  Sturgis,  apropos  of  a  common  an 
cestress  on  that  side  who  had,  according  to  Mr. 
Sturgis,  made  her  grocery  shop  successful  by  in 
serting  a  large  thumb  into  all  her  measures  as  she 
served  her  customers.1  As  a  matter  of  fact  this 
lady  (nee  Elizabeth  Peck),  who  had  been  left  a 
widow  early  in  life,  with  eight  small  children  to 
bring  up,  had  by  most  honorable  means  transformed 
the  wholesale  part  of  the  grocery  business  left  by 
her  husband  into  one  of  large  and  general  com 
merce,  and  had  bequeathed  this  to  her  sons;  and 
her  character  and  ability  had  my  father's  warm 

1  The  following  epitaph  on  the  father  of  the  ancestress  referred  to 
has  been  sent  me  by  another  cousin,  Mr.  J.  Elliot  Cabot :  — 

Here  lies  a  Peck,  who,  some  men  say, 
Was  first  of  all  a  Peck  of  clay. 
This,  formed  by  Hand  Divine,  while  fresh, 
Became  a  common  Peck  of  flesh. 

Full  forty  years  Peck  felt  life's  bubbles, 
Till  death  relieved  a  Peck  of  troubles. 
And  here  he  lies,  as  all  men  must, 
Though  nothing  but  a  Peck  of  dust. 


4  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

esteem.  Nevertheless,  any  hint  of  pride  in  ancestry, 
and  through  that  in  merits  not  one's  own,  would  be 
sure  to  produce  the  profane  story  of  the  thumb. 

For  all  this  he  was  a  man  of  the  strongest  family 
affection.  In  his  own  immediate  circle  he  was, 
throughout  life,  all  that  one  could  be  to  his  rela 
tives. 

For  his  grandmother  Dorothy's  sister,  Mrs.  Eliza 
beth  Murray  Bobbins,  and  her  kind  husband,  he 
had  a  grateful  regard,  saying  that  she  stood  in  his 
grandmother's  place  to  him.1  And  as  she  had  de 
lighted  him  by  gifts  of  pill-boxes  filled  with  small 
silver  pieces,  so  he  in  his  old  age  kept  an  assort 
ment  of  like  boxes  for  all  sorts  of  little  people,  in 
memory  of  the  pleasure  she  had  given  him  so  long 
ago  ;  after  his  death  we  found  a  bag  of  change  and 
numberless  little  plush  boxes  ready  for  use.  In  all 
this  good  aunt's  family,  down  to  her  great-grand 
children,  he  kept  a  deep  interest,  and  would  dwell 
constantly  on  Judge  Bobbins' s  kindness,  or  enu 
merate  the  virtues  of  his  cousins,  Mary  Kevere  and 
Sally  Howe,  or  smile  over  recollections  of  the  pithy 
stories  of  their  sister,  Mrs.  Lyman.  And  then  he 
would  mention  with  pleasure  some  good  trait  he 
had  observed  in  their  descendants. 

Impatient,  to  a  degree,  of  sloth,  incompetency, 
and  above  all  hypocrisy,  I  have  seen  him  among 
kith  and  kin,  and  those  who  had  any  claim  on  him, 

1  Dorothy  Murray  Forbes  died  in  1811,  two  years  before  J.  M. 
F.'s  birth,  after  having  been  a  cripple,  from  rheumatic  gout,  for 
nearly  thirty  years. 


INTRODUCTION  5 

exhibit  an  endless  patience  and  long-suffering  with 
the  foibles  most  distasteful  to  him ;  so  that  a  cousin 
who  had  had  many  opportunities  of  watching  him 
under  very  trying  circumstances  once  exclaimed, 
"  The  most  patient  impatient  man  I  have  ever 


seen ! " 


It  cannot  be  denied,  however,  that  my  father 
could  be  a  good  hater,  and  when  once  this  feeling 
was  excited  he  seemed  never  to  be  able  to  tolerate 
the  persons  who  inspired  it,  often  expending  on 
them  more  thought  than  they  were  worth.  As  a 
rule  this  sentiment  was  confined  to  public  charac 
ters  of  whose  conduct  and  record  he  disapproved. 
Especially  he  detested  sanctimonious  rogues,  or  in 
fact  pretense  of  any  kind,  whether  of  patriotism  or 
religion.  Toleration  of  newspapers  which  spread 
"  bad  doctrine,"  financial  or  political,  or  increased 
their  circulation  by  personal  scandals,  was  not 
among  his  virtues.  His  estimate  of  one  of  this  or 
der,  which  had  attacked  his  business  honor,  was 
shown  by  his  characteristic  reply  to  some  friends 
who  had  urged  him  at  once  to  vindicate  himself : 

"  When  the  New  York praises  me,  I  shall 

sue  it  for  libel,  not  before." 

My  father's  really  active  business  life  in  this 
country  began  on  his  return  from  China  in  the 
middle  of  the  financial  panic  of  1837,  but  it  was 
not  till  1860,  when  the  war  cloud,  so  long  in  gath 
ering,  was  about  to  burst,  that  the  inordinate  work 
began  which  I  remember  as  going  on  continuously 
from  that  date.  But  whether  busy  or  comparatively 


6  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

idle,  he  still  found  time  for  irksome  duties  to  his 
children,  and  would  walk  the  floor  all  night  with  an 
ailing,  wide-awake  baby,  crooning  old  songs  to  it, 
and  watching  for  the  cold  winter's  dawn  to  refresh 
himself  with  bath  and  breakfast,  —  and  then  to  his 
work  in  Boston.  Before  1860  he  had  at  least  pe 
riods  of  leisure.  He  would  go  to  his  office  in  Bos 
ton  early,  return  to  Milton  for  dinner  (also  early), 
and  drive  with  my  mother  afterwards,  or  ride  with 
my  sisters,  mounted  on  his  favorite  horse  Prince. 
And  later  on,  when  I  was  still  quite  a  small  child, 
he  would  often  call  me  to  a  delightful  game  of  hide 
and  seek  among  the  pine-trees  behind  the  house; 
and  when  winter  came  he  would  appear  with  a  won 
derful  pair  of  skates  which  he  had  had  made  with 
double  runners,  "  to  make  him  secure  "  as  he  said, 
and  with  these  on  his  feet  would  teach  me  to  skate 
on  one  of  the  meadows  which  he  had  had  flooded 
by  damming  the  brook  that  flowed  through  it ;  and 
so  on  this  eminently  safe  pond  we  struggled  about 
until  the  desired  end  was  attained.  Besides  making 
the  pond  itself,  he  had  built  a  large  settle,  with  a 
high  back,  where  we  could  put  on  and  take  off  our 
skates  and  rest,  sheltered  from  the  north  wind,  a 
comfort  for  which  we  all  were  grateful,  and  the 
conception  of  which  was  very  characteristic  of  him 
self.  He  always  held  it  to  be  bad  economy  for  any 
one  to  submit  to  a  discomfort  which  could  be  rea 
sonably  avoided. 

Afterward  there  was  little  of  this  leisure  in  Mil 
ton.     The  storm  and  stress   had  begun,  and,   al- 


INTRODUCTION  7 

though  we  all  knew  then,  more  or  less,  that  he  was 
hard-worked,  it  brings  now  a  feeling  of  exhaustion 
to  look  through  the  letters  and  papers  of  those 
years  and  realize  for  the  first  time  the  amount  and 
variety  of  work  which  must  have  been  got  through. 
I  do  not  undertake  to  catalogue  the  immense  mass 
of  this  material ;  the  following  pages  will  speak  for 
themselves. 

During  the  most  exciting  periods  of  the  war 
letters  were  begun  at  six  o'clock  in  the  morning. 
After  breakfast,  rain  or  shine,  he  rode  into  Boston, 
and  back  to  dinner.  Then  a  short  nap,  and  work 
until  supper,  followed  by  a  game  of  cards ;  after 
which,  work  again  until  far  into  the  night,  some 
times  until  three  o'clock  the  next  morning.  On 
other  occasions  all  day  would  be  spent  in  Boston. 
I  can  recollect  my  mother's  anxiety  over  it  all ;  and 
yet  the  work  was  to  be  done  !  He  was  often  so 
weary  that  he  would  say  he  wished  he  could  do 
something  to  get  shut  up  in  jail,  as  "  the  only  place 
where  he  could  be  sure  of  rest." 

He  never  liked  it  to  be  known  that  he  wrote 
editorials,  or  inspired  editors  with  his  views,  or  that 
he  drew  up  bills  for  congressmen ;  and  he  always 
declined  any  nomination  for  office.  "  Let  them  feel 
that  I  want  nothing  but  the  good  of  the  country, 
and  then  I  shall  be  trusted  :  if  it  is  fancied  that  I 
work  for  any  personal  end  I  shall  lose  influence." 
And  again,  "  Never  mind  who  does  it  or  gets  the 
credit  for  it  so  long  as  the  thing  is  done." 

Any  number  of  men,  statesmen,  men  of  the  army 


:  JOHX  MURRAY  FORBES 

and  navy.  aifi««iiijfW»  men-  business  men  having  to  do 
with  steamboats,  railroads,  newspapers,  and  polities, 
were  constantly  invited  bj  my  father  to  his  house. 
I  can  recollect  an  endfcsR  succession  of  them,  from 
Emerson,  \msm-  Wvman.  Sumner.  Andrew.  Fes- 

» 

fgmlfmj  Chase,  Cobden.  Goldwin  Smith,  and  James 
Brvce.  to  men  whose  names  were  never  heard  of 

•          * 

out  of  their  own  business.  All  were  made  wel 
come  ;  all  who  were  in  earnest  were  warmly  re 
ceived-  His  way  of  imparting  his  ideas  to  these 
various  guests  was  verv  characteristic.  Often  he 

» 

would  grasp  with  his  left  hand  the  right  arm  of  the 
person  to  be  convinced  and  walk  him  off.  earnestly 
talking,  and  emphasizing  any  telling  point  with  a 
stroke  executed  in  the  air  with  the  forefinger  of  his 
right  hand.  This  forefinger  so  marked  his  sen 
tences  that  one  watched  it,  involuntarily,  and  grew 
quite  sure  that  the  views  he  tried  to  impress  were 
being  successfully  driven  home  to  the  mind  of  his 
bearer  by  means  of  it. 

I  think  that  one  of  my  father's  strong  points  in 
his  dealings  with  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men 
was  his  power  of  drawing  out  all  they  had  in  them 
of  interest.  This  gift  he  sometimes  humorously 
brought  to  bear  on  the  modern  newspaper  reporter. 
On  one  of  our  Western  trips,  when  we  had  Mr. 
Emerson  with  us  and  stopped  at  Salt  Lake  City,  one 
of  these  gentlemen  boarded  our  car  and  wanted  my 
father's  "impressions  of  the  West,"  etc.  He  was 
received  very  pleasantly ;  but  to  our  great  amuse 
ment  we  soon  found  the  reporter  giving  hi*  views 


INTRODUCTION  9 

of  the  West,  and  my  father  listening  with  interest 
and  attention,  and  continuing  to  ply  him  with  ques 
tions  till  the  end  of  the  interview.  The  gentleman 
of  the  press  went  away  much  pleased,  but  without 
having  discovered  that  we  had  the  "  Seer  of  Con 
cord"  with  us,  and  quite  in  the  dark  as  to  Mr. 
Forbes's  views  on  any  subject. 

But  perhaps  his  strongest  point  was  his  power  of 
"  putting  through  "  work.  No  obstacle  seemed  to 
daunt  him,  failure  only  to  stimulate  to  fresh  exer 
tion.  He  used  to  declare  that  he  was  the  laziest  of 
men.  We  did  not  see  it !  When,  to  his  peculiar 
disappointment,  General  Butler  was  chosen  gov 
ernor  of  Massachusetts,  he  only  said,  "  We  must 
work  harder  next  time  ;  "  and  while  strength  lasted 
he  never  thought  the  removal  of  a  poor  official, 
representative,  or  senator,  too  great  an  undertaking. 
No  political  machine  ever  made  him  fear  to  set 
about  such  a  business.1  "  We  must  appeal  to  the 
people,"  he  would  say;  and  with  "Broadsides"  and 
the  "  Spirit  of  the  Campaign  "  (printed  sheets  con 
taining  articles  from  the  best  newspapers  in  the 
country)  he  would  bombard  local  editors  and  post 
masters,  and  through  them  the  people,  in  his  own 
and  other  States.  "  People,"  he  insisted,  "  must  be 
taught  to  think."  Eeady  to  own  himself  wrong,  if 
so  proved,  yet,  meantime,  he  had  an  intense  belief 

1  See  letter  of  October  29,  1884  (at  page  207  of  vol.  ii.),  to  the 
Independents.  In  another  letter  to  them,  written  during  the  same 
month,  he  says  :  "  Better  make  a  thousand  mistakes  in  your  method 
of  action  than  to  stand  supinely  and  let  the  ship  of  state  drift  on,  or 
be  entirely  in  the  hands  of  hack  politicians." 


10  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

in  his  own  convictions,  which  brought  victory  in 
many  a  hard-fought  field. 

That  he  impressed  others  with  his  power  of  carry 
ing  his  point  is  clear  from  many  of  the  letters  to 
him  which  I  have  read.  The  Kev.  W.  G.  Eliot,  of 
St.  Louis,  wanting  help  in  getting  colored  troops 
enlisted,  and  in  strengthening  General  Schofield' s 
hands  in  this  matter,  writes,  "Your  coming  here 
would  do  great  good.  You  are  a  perfect  firebrand. 
Come  prepared  to  speak  for  the  powers  if  you  can, 
and  get  the  bounty  for  the  negro  recruits,  if  possi 
ble  ;"  and  Mr.  John  Earl  Williams,  of  the  New 
York  Metropolitan  Bank,  writes  on  the  same  sub 
ject,  "  What  do  I  think  about  your  going  to  St. 
Louis  ?  Go  by  all  means  ;  don't  fail  to  do  it.  Per 
haps  you  know  Schofield;  but  lest  you  may  not  I 
inclose  a  line  to  him,  which,  of  course,  I  know 
to  be  unnecessary,  as  you  will  have  St.  Louis, 
Schofield,  and  all,  under  your  command  twenty-four 
hours  after  you  get  there ! "  And  finally,  Mr. 
Robinson,  the  newspaper  correspondent  known  as 
"  Warrington,"  in  one  of  his  "  Pen  Portraits  "  gives 
the  following  account  of  my  father's  methods  of 
work  at  this  time  :  "  It  is  curious  to  see  a  meeting 
of  the  Committee  on  the  Enlistment  of  Colored 
Troops.  John  M.  Forbes  is  its  chairman,  a  man  of 
headlong  energy,  long  time  an  abolitionist,  and 
more  than  any  other  man  the  confidential  adviser 
and  helper  of  Governor  Andrew.  He  attends  to 
everything ;  writes  letters,  raises  money  (liberally 
contributing  himself),  sends  messages  to  Washing- 


INTRODUCTION  11 

ton  to  direct  and  organize  congressional  opinion, 
makes  or  persuades  editors  to  write  leading  articles 
to  enforce  his  views,  hunts  up  members  of  Congress 
in  vacation  time,  dines  them  at  the  club,  and  sends 
them  back  full  of  practical  suggestions,  which  reap 
pear  in  bills  and  resolves  the  month  after." 

Amidst  the  intense  labor  before,  during,  and 
after  the  civil  war,  I  never  knew  how  my  father 
found  time  to  give  so  much  thought  to  his  children 
as  he  did.  A  wise  counselor,  tender,  patient  friend, 
and  cheery  comrade,  he  was  to  us,  one  and  all. 
Every  reasonable  wish  of  our  hearts  was  granted, 
with  a  pleasure,  in  pleasing  us,  which  made  the 
sweetest  part  of  the  benefaction.  His  pride  in  his 
sons  was  good  to  see.  When  my  younger  brother 
proved  himself  a  good  sailor  and  won  races,  sailing 
his  own  boat,  my  father  took  the  liveliest  delight  in 
his  victories,  throwing  himself  into  the  sport  with 
the  ardor  of  a  boy.  Later,  the  success  of  my  elder 
brother,  as  president  of  the  American  Bell  Tele 
phone  Company,  was  a  source  of  great  gratification ; 
largely  because,  as  he  said  to  me,  it  showed  that  he 
had  real  ability,  and  "  was  not  spoiled  by  his  too 
easy  surroundings."  In  after  years  his  grandchil 
dren  became  a  great  delight  to  him.  He  dwelt 
much  on  the  pleasure  they  gave  him,  and  showed  as 
large  a  generosity  to  them,  and  sympathy  with  their 
joys  and  sorrows,  as  he  had  shown  in  the  case  of 
his  own  children.  These,  both  sons  and  daughters, 
he  had  made  independent  of  him,  in  money  matters, 
—  giving  so  simply  and  so  much  as  a  matter  of 


12  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

course  that  they  scarcely  realized  how  unusual  such 
liberality  was. 

This  habit  of  making  light  of  what  he  did  for 
others  was  a  very  strong  one.  "  Mr.  Forbes  retires 
behind  his  benefactions,"  one  friend  said  of  him; 
and  another,  a  young  relative  whom  he  greatly 
valued  and  to  whom  he  had  given  a  house,  told  me, 
"  He  handed  me  the  deed  as  if  it  had  been  a  ticket 
to  the  opera."  This  recalls  to  me  a  transaction 
which  illustrates  my  father's  ingenuity  in  devis 
ing  means  of  making  gifts  so  that  no  feeling  of 
delicacy  on  the  part  of  the  recipient  should  be 
wounded.  A  near  relative  (Miss  E.)  and  he  had 
a  mutual  friend,  one  of  the  rare  souls  that  come  to 
bless  the  earth  from  time  to  time  and  show  how 
like  heaven  some  people  can  make  it.  This  lady 
(Mrs.  M.)  was  a  widow  with  children,  whose  hus 
band  had  left  her  but  poorly  off,  so  far  as  money 
went.  With  that  quiet  dignity  which  graced  our 
old-time  ladies  of  New  England  she  had  put  gently 
aside  all  offers  of  help.  The  house  she  rented 
chanced  to  belong  to  my  father,  and  he  well  knew 
that  he  could  give  her  nothing.  Miss  E.  was  ill, 
dying,  in  fact,  as  both  of  them  knew ;  he  went  to 
her  and  talked  over  with  her  the  matter  of  the 
house,  and  they  agreed  that  he  should  deed  it  and 
its  land  to  her,  and  that  she  should  leave  it  to  Mrs. 
M. ;  and  this  was  done,  so  that  no  feeling  but  that 
of  the  dear  memory  of  her  friend  was  ever  mingled 
in  the  mind  of  the  recipient  with  the  gift  of  her 
home.  She  may  have  suspected  the  transaction, 
but  in  this  world  she  never  knew. 


INTRODUCTION  13 

In  smaller  matters,  his  inability  to  enjoy  the 
pleasant  things  of  life  without  sharing  them  with 
others  was  a  marked  trait.  No  sail  in  the  yacht 
was  perfect  unless  a  party  could  be  gathered  to 
enjoy  it  too ;  and  after  the  Wild  Duck,  with  her 
auxiliary  screw,  had  taken  the  place  of  his  old  sail 
ing  yacht,  the  Azalea,  and  had  made  it  possible 
to  time  his  excursions  more  exactly,  he  took  great 
pleasure  in  giving  the  clerks  and  other  employees 
of  the  Chicago,  Burlington  and  Quincy  Eailroad 
an  outing  on  Boston  Harbor  or  Buzzard's  Bay,  — 
in  the  latter  case  sending  the  yacht  to  meet  them 
in  New  Bedford,  landing  them  at  Naushon,  and 
taking  them  over  the  island.  Then  again,  once  a 
year  the  Wild  Duck,  well  provisioned  you  may  be 
sure,  was  lent  to  the  Old  Colony  Kailroad  officials 
who  served  on  the  Wood's  Hole  branch,  for  a  day's 
sail.  And  the  island  friends,  farmers,  sailors,  ser 
vants,  and  all,  had  one  afternoon  in  the  course  of 
the  summer,  with  supper  served  them  on  the  yacht. 

This  trait  appeared  occasionally  in  a  "  pious 
fraud"  in  which  he  took  great  satisfaction.  He 
much  enjoyed  fruit,  especially  oranges ;  and  at  one 
time  he  owned  an  orange  grove  in  Florida.  It 
proved  to  be  rather  a  poor  one  and  was  soon  sold ; 
but  it  served  long  as  a  pretext  for  the  distribution 
of  numberless  boxes  of  Indian  Kiver  oranges  (some 
times  shipped  for  him  direct  from  Florida,  some 
times  secured  in  Boston)  among  dozens  of  friends 
and  relatives,  from  his  "  Florida  grove." 

Never  was  a  man  more  truly  "  born  in  givey  wea- 


14  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

ther,"  as  the  little  girl  in  the  story  of  "  Poor  Papa  " 
called  it.  His  last  act  of  this  sort,  within  a  few 
weeks  of  his  death,  concerned  a  relative,  for  whom 
he  had  a  great  regard ;  but  in  talking  over  the  pro 
spective  gift  he  was  troubled  by  the  thought  of  her 

virtues,  and  exclaimed,  "  M is  so  unselfish,  she 

will  give  it  all  away."     I  comforted  him  with  the 

assurance  that  M would  do  as  he  wished,  for 

his  sake;  and  then  he  took  great  pleasure  in  the 
thought  that  in  future  she  would  have  a  few  more 
small  comforts  on  her  own  account,  and  wound  up 
with,  "  Her  mother  and  grandmother  were  so  good 
to  me." 

Our  kind  friend  of  many  years,  Professor  Thayer, 
has  spoken,  in  an  article  on  my  father  in  the  "  Bos 
ton  Transcript,"  of  his  "  sleepless  benevolence."  The 
Institute  of  Technology,  schools  for  the  freedmen, 
the  Tuskegee  School,  the  Hampton  School,  Milton 
Academy,  funds  for  the  families  of  various  public 
men  after  their  service  was  ended,  and  political 
campaign  funds,  were  conspicuous  objects  of  his 
generosity;  but  there  were  endless  others,  both 
public  and  private,  of  which  we  had  at  the  time  no 
knowledge.  He  always  said  that  he  wished  to  see 
money  used  while  he  lived ;  that  he  had  seen  too 
much  mischief  done  by  dull  trustees  to  wish  to  tie 
up  money  in  that  way.1 

1  One  of  the  codicils  of  his  will  reads  :  "  I  wish  my  heirs  to 
understand  that  my  policy  has  been,  and  I  hope  may  continue  to  he, 
to  do  what  I  reasonably  can  for  public  objects,  and  for  my  near  rela 
tives  and  friends,  while  I  am  here  and  can  myself  observe  the  effect 
of  what  I  do.  I  hope  and  believe  that  my  heirs  will  continue  the 


INTRODUCTION  15 

With  all  this,  he  disliked  to  see  his  name  in  pub- 
He  donations,  and  seldom  headed  a  subscription  list 
unless  he  hoped  to  induce  others  to  give  by  giving 
himself ;  as  a  rule  he  concealed  the  amount  of  his 
benefaction  and  let  other  people  lead.  Sometimes 
he  would  put  his  name  and  subscription  on  one  line ; 
and  on  the  next  "  From  a  friend/'  with  a  second 
donation ;  and  in  some  instances,  when  he  took 
especial  interest  in  the  matter  in  hand,  he  would 
make  this  ruse  cover  several  of  these  "friends," 
with  a  good  amount  attached  to  each. 

But  in  spite  of  this  concealment,  it  was  natural 
that  his  habit  of  free  giving,  when  there  was  any 
good  reason  for  it,  should  have  got  abroad  and  led 
to  scores  of  applications  for  aid,  with  no  reason  to 
show  for  them  whatever.  I  will  give  two  of  these, 
as  specimens,  the  one  of  innocence,  the  other  of 
assurance.  An  old  woman,  well  to  do  in  appearance, 
whose  name  he  had  never  heard  before,  called  on 
him  one  day  at  his  office  and  told  him  she  had  a 
grown-up  son  living  with  her,  and  it  would  be  so 
nice  for  them  to  have  a  little  home  of  their  own. 
She  did  not  want  to  have  any  mortgage  on  it,  but 
to  own  it  outright.  She  had  heard  that  Mr.  Forbes 
had  more  money  than  he  knew  what  to  do  with ; 
and  now  would  he  manage  this  for  her  ?  He  hated 
to  snub  her,  and  said,  very  gravely,  "  Madam,  I  '11 

same  policy,  within  prudent  limits,  in  the  way  of  using  their  pro 
perty  for  public  and  private  beneficences  under  their  own  eyes  ;  my 
own  experience  having  been  that  money  can  be  much  better  used 
under  the  eye  of  the  giver,  than  by  bequeathing  it,  under  attempted 
limitations,  to  public  managers  or  to  trustees'  management." 


16  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

think  of  it ; "  but  when  she  replied,  looking  at  him 
doubtfully,  "  I  'm  afraid  you  won't  do  it/'  he  had 
to  add,  "  I  'm  afraid  I  shan't."  The  other  applica 
tion  was  made  by  letter.  It  came  from  the  fond 
mother  of  twins  who  had  heard  that  his  name  was 
John  Malcolm,  and  modestly  offered,  if  he  would 
send  her  $500,  to  name  one  of  them  John  Malcolm 
and  the  other  Malcolm  John  ! 

The  Institute  of  Technology,  on  the  board  of 
which  he  served,  always  commanded  his  greatest 
respect  and  interest.  He  declared  that  the  classics 
were  of  no  use  to  half  the  community ;  while,  in  a 
new  country,  there  must  always  be  a  call  for  tech 
nical  training;  and  he  held  that  a  young  man 
should  be  fitted  to  earn  his  own  living  at  once  on 
leaving  his  place  of  instruction.  Then,  again,  Har 
vard,  in  his  opinion,  was  a  club  for  the  favored  few, 
not  meant  for  those  with  whom  he  most  sympa 
thized,  whose  call  was  instant  work  on  graduation ; 
and  although  some  of  us  used  to  urge  that  he 
underestimated  the  scope  of  Harvard  and  the  good 
to  be  got  there,  no  argument  moved  him,  and  he 
clung  to  his  view  of  the  respective  merits  of  the  two 
places  of  education  with  his  usual  tenacity. 

From  the  year  1857  my  father's  long  vacations 
were  spent  at  Naushon,  an  island  dividing  Buzzard's 
Bay  from  Vineyard  Sound,  which  he  had  some  time 
before  joined  my  mother's  uncle,  "  Governor " 
Swain,  in  buying.  It  is  about  seven  miles  long, 
with  a  surface  varied  by  woods,  hills,  open  downs, 

1  The  governorship  was  that  of  Naushon,  —  ED. 


INTRODUCTION  17 

and  a  number  of  ponds,  —  some  hidden  in  the 
depths  of  tangled  swamps,  some  along  the  shore  or 
in  little  nooks  in  the  hills,  while  Deerwood  Lake, 
at  the  west  or  farthest  end,  is  really  a  large  sheet 
of  water,  and  has  always  been  the  principal  objec 
tive  point  for  island  picnics. 

The  same  earnestness  which  filled  my  father's 
business  life  went  with  him  when  he  left  the  office 
behind.  Into  play  as  into  work,  he  threw  himself 
with  his  whole  soul ;  and  it  was  this,  and  his  abso 
lute  faith  in  the  good-will  of  those  about  him, 
which  inspired  children,  friends,  and  dependents 
with  the  strongest  desire  to  do  his  bidding,  and  se 
cured  for  him  such  service  as  is  very  rare.  At  the 
word  of  command  men  would  rush  to  saddle  horses, 
maids  to  prepare  all  sorts  of  unexpected  meals, 
boatmen  to  get  yachts  ready  and  hoist  sail ;  and  the 
same  inspiration  reached  to  clerks,  railway  conduc 
tors,  telegraph  operators,  and  others  with  whom  he 
came  in  contact ;  all  sprang  to  do  his  bidding. 

At  Naushon  my  father  usually  wrote  in  the  morn 
ing  ;  and  when,  as  he  said,  he  had  "  cleared  the 
decks  "  of  his  business  letters,  he  drove  with  some 
of  us  to  the  South  Shore  of  the  island,  where  there 
were  bathing-houses  and  a  safe  sandy  beach,  and 
where  he  taught  us  to  swim.  After  early  dinner, 
and  then  a  short  nap,  came  his  afternoon  ride,  some 
times  with  the  elders,  who  could  go  fast,  sometimes 
taking  me  on  Johnny  Crapaud,  the  French  pony,  of 
whom  more  will  be  told  later  on.  When  I  outgrew 
Johnny,  there  were  two  island  ponies,  Countess  and 


18  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

Kosabelle,  to  mount ;  and  often,  after  a  chapter  of 
his  favorite  Sir  Walter  Scott,  he  took  me  with  him 
through  the  woods  and  over  the  hills. 

In  our  talks  during  these  rides  there  came,  natu 
rally  and  without  premeditation,  opinions  and  pre 
cepts  which  I  recall  vividly  to  this  day.  He  spoke 
of  the  civil  war,  then  raging,  and  talked  with  much 
freedom  of  public  men.  President  Lincoln,  he 
always  declared,  was  a  follower,  not  a  leader,  of 
public  opinion ;  but  of  Governor  Andrew,  whom 
during  those  anxious  years  he  managed  to  bring 
once  and  again  to  the  island  for  rest,  he  could  not 
say  enough  in  praise.  There  were  talks  on  busi 
ness  matters,  of  which  he  held  that  girls  were  kept 
much  too  ignorant,  adding  that  not  one  in  a  dozen 
knew,  when  grown  up,  the  difference  between  stocks 
and  bonds.  He  spoke  of  railroads,  their  policy  and 
management,  the  difficulties  of  the  "  long  and  short 
haul"  question,  and  the  like.  Business  axioms 
were  impressed,  by  the  force  of  his  opinion,  on  my 
mind.  Never,  he  would  say,  for  any  business  or 
other  purpose,  borrow  more  money  than,  by  giving 
up  all  your  property,  you  can  repay,  in  case  your 
venture  should  be  a  failure.  He  said  that  at  one 
time  he  had  to  mortgage  both  his  Milton  and  Nau- 
shon  places  in  order  to  advance  money  to  the  rail 
roads  in  which  he  was  interested ;  but  neither  then, 
nor  at  any  other  time,  would  any  one  but  himself 
have  been  a  loser  had  his  ventures  failed. 

He  talked  of  the  importance  of  always  distinctly 
putting  responsibility  where  it  belonged.  Apropos 


INTRODUCTION  19 

of  this,  I  find  a  letter  of  his  to  a  partner  in  Eussell 
&  Co.  in  which  he  says :  "  I  have  a  great  horror 
of  a  divided  responsibility,  preferring  one  common 
man,  who  has  got  to  take  all  the  credit  or  blame, 
to  half  a  dozen  geniuses,  who  can  put  it  off  on 
somebody  else."  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  his 
adherence  to  this  maxim  was  an  important  element 
in  his  successful  leadership. 

There  were  discourses  on  the  extreme  care  re 
quired  in  the  treatment  of  trust  funds  placed  in 
your  hands,  and  the  scrupulous  avoidance  by  a  busi 
ness  man  of  recommending  as  an  investment  for 
others  any  business  in  which  he  might  be  himself 
engaged,  as  one  could  not  fail  to  be  more  or  less 
biased  in  favor  of  his  own  projects.  "Let  investors 
judge  by  reports,  by  character,  by  the  opinion  of 
other  good  business  men  not  in  the  venture;  but 
withhold  your  own  opinion."  He  was  equally  em 
phatic  in  his  warning  against  the  assumption  that 
high  interest  on  an  investment  could  be  either 
secure  or  permanent,  and  recommended  as  a  pre 
cautionary  measure  the  saving  of  anything  over 
four  per  cent,  interest  on  one's  capital,  for  rein 
vestment,  in  order  to  be  secure  against  risk  and 
depreciation.  A  conservative  business  man,  he 
said,  should  never  invest  in  any  property  which  has 
not  real,  intrinsic  value.  Nothing  is  more  foolish 
than  fancying  yourself  clever  enough  to  speculate 
successfully  in  stocks  that  are  for  the  moment  "  fa 
vorites,"  but  not  good  for  permanent  investment. 
You  are  pitting  your  wits  against  those  of  men  "  on 


20  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

change/'  the  keenest  in  the  country,  and  are  sure 
to  fail  in  the  end,  as  any  other  amateur  gambler 
must  do  when  playing  with  professionals.  On  the 
other  hand,  if  a  thing  has  real  bottom  buy  it. 
Then,  if  it  should  fall  ever  so  low,  you  can  wait 
patiently  for  its  rise,  which  will  surely  come,  inde 
pendently  of  stock  market  fluctuations ;  and  when 
it  does  come,  if  you  wish  to  sell,  do  not  wait  for 
what  people  consider  the  highest  point,  but  be  con 
tent  with  a  moderate  profit.  These  things  point  to 
that  conservatism  in  business  of  which  my  father 
claimed  to  have  no  small  share. 

He  had  a  vivid  recollection  of  his  own  early  work 
and  struggles,  and  the  strongest  wish  to  help  on 
young  men  who  were  having  a  hard  time  at  their 
start  in  life.  He  would  plan  education,  and  pro 
vide  places  for  boys  ;  and  cared  more  for  those  who 
were  poor  (if  only  they  had  energy  and  determina 
tion  to  work)  than  for  those  whose  circumstances 
were  easier.  He  enjoyed  having  such  fellows  at 
Naushon  and  giving  them  all  the  fun  he  could  be 
tween  their  working  times. 

As  to  Naushon,  my  parents  always  felt  that  this 
"  Paradise  for  children  young  and  old "  must  be 
shared  with  all  their  cousins  and  friends,  and  their 
respective  small  people,  and  I  may  say,  in  passing, 
that  in  war  time  it  became  a  convalescent  hospital. 
A  constant  stream  of  guests  poured  through  the 
house  and  took  part  in  the  joyous  summer  and  au 
tumn  holiday  time,  and  its  boating,  riding,  fishing, 
and  hunting.  There  was  always  room  for  one 


INTRODUCTION  21 

more,  and  the  food  was  abundant  and  very  simple. 
My  father,  with  keen  pleasure  in  the  young  folks 
about  him,  would  sit  at  the  long  table,  chaffing  and 
teasing  this  one  and  that,  or  making  game  of  any 
small  mischance,  such  as  the  getting  brushed  off 
one's  horse  by  some  one  not  on  the  lookout  for 
projecting  boughs ;  and  he  would  tell  how  this 
thing  had  happened,  years  before,  to  Miss  Elizabeth 
Peabody  of  kindergarten  fame,  and  how,  on  being 
asked  whether  she  did  not  see  the  bough,  she  had 
replied,  "  Oh,  yes,  I  saw  it,  but  did  not  realize  it !  " 
All  this  in  the  kindliest  spirit ;  and  though  some 
of  the  juniors  were  too  shy  to  appreciate  jokes  at 
their  own  expense,  the  greater  part  gave  as  good 
as  they  got ;  and  so  the  meals  were  very  merry, 
pervaded  with  a  sense  of  vivid  life,  of  which  all  felt 
my  father  to  be  the  centre.  At  times,  interspersed 
with  the  chaff,  came  really  good  talk,  when  some  of 
my  parents'  friends,  for  whose  opinion  they  cared, 
were  there.  It  was  their  wish  that  we  should  be 
listeners  on  such  occasions,  and  the  discussions 
which  then  took  place  have  left  many  and  delight 
ful  memories. 

But  the  house  was  generally  in  the  hands  of  the 
young  people ;  and  with  such  an  army  of  them  as 
I  have  indicated,  the  hurly-burly  which  occurred 
when  an  expedition  to  the  West  End  was  on  foot 
was  prodigious.  My  father  would  be  writing  for 
dear  life  at  his  table,  while  the  punctual  member  of 
the  family,  book  in  hand,  would  wait,  seated  at  one 
of  the  windows,  and  a  concourse  of  boys  and  girls 


22  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

would  tear  through  the  rooms  shouting  for  bait, 
hooks  and  lines,  luncheon,  and  billhooks,  or  for 
choice  of  which  should  ride  and  which  go  in  the 
wagons,  —  he  continuing  to  write  as  rapidly  as  if 
perfect  calm  prevailed.  But  when  once  he  was 
ready,  double-quick  was  the  order,  and  we  were 
soon  off  and  away.  He  used  to  go  through  the 
woods  with  the  most  murderous,  curved,  cutting 
knife,  bare  in  his  hand,  lopping  off  such  branches 
as  grew  too  much  over  the  road, — stopping  from 
time  to  time  and  dropping  his  reins  on  his  horse's 
neck,  when  a  tougher  bough  than  could  be  managed 
with  one  hand  was  encountered.  As  a  rule,  his 
horses  learned  to  stand  this  manoeuvre  very  well; 
I  ought  to  say,  however,  that  on  one  occasion  his 
horse  did  take  offense  at  a  large  bough  falling  on 
his  haunches,  and  dashed  off  among  the  trees  with 
his  rider ;  he,  seeing  a  dangerous  branch  ahead, 
promptly  kicked  his  feet  out  of  the  stirrups,  dropped 
reins  and  billhook,  caught  the  branch,  and  reached 
the  ground  unhurt.  He  impressed  all  the  active 
young  men  into  the  service,  and  thus  kept  the 
paths  well  open,  and  insured  their  having  an  appe 
tite  for  the  lunch  which  was  afterwards  served 
under  a  great  oak  near  the  West  End  Pond.  After 
lunch  there  was  generally  a  fishing  expedition  for 
perch,  and  in  later  years  for  black  bass,  in  a  flat- 
bottomed  boat  on  the  lake.  Then  home,  sometimes 
in  the  dark,  when  the  horses  were  the  best  guides, 
and  always  brought  us  back  safe  and  sound. 

Next,  in  my  Naushon  holiday  memories,  comes  the 


INTRODUCTION  23 

autumn  deer  hunt.  The  precedents  for  this  were 
handed  down,  somewhat  modified  in  form,  from  the 
time  when  my  mother's  uncle  was  governor  of  the 
island.  Matters  went  somewhat  thus :  breakfast, 
amid  considerable  confusion  over  orders  for  horses, 
arrangements  for  luncheon,  guns,  cartridges,  etc. 
Next  my  father  with  a  small  hunting  horn,  very 
eager-eyed,  hurrying  on  the  juniors,  and,  it  must 
be  confessed,  hustling  those  of  the  seniors  who 
required  it,  giving  prompt  orders,  in  a  rather  low- 
pitched  voice  :  "  Tie  up  at  the  black  gate !  W., 
put  H.  on  this  stand,  A.  on  that ! "  and  the  like. 
Then  the  piling  into  the  wagons  of  the  elder  hunt 
ers,  the  younger  going  with  my  father ;  and  perhaps 
a  couple  of  girls  following  on  horseback.  Then  our 
leader  sounds  one  sharp  note  on  his  horn  :  "  I  give 
you  just  fifteen  minutes  to  be  on  your  stands,"  and 
the  cavalcade  starts  off  pell-mell  for  the  black  gate. 
Here  the  horses  are  tied  ;  and  then  the  hunters  are 
hurried  by  my  brothers  to  certain  trees,  rocks,  or 
shrubs,  all  out  of  shot  of  one  another  and  identified 
by  name  as  separate  stands,  and  are  bidden,  if  raw 
hands,  not  to  stir  from  their  places  lest  they  get 
within  some  one  else's  range,  never  to  shoot  a  doe 
or  fawn,  nor  move  until  the  leader  of  the  beaters 
winds  his  horn  and  Mr.  Forbes  answers  with  his ; 
this  being  the  signal  that  the  "  drive  is  up,"  and 
that  all  have  to  repair  again  to  the  black  gate. 
Promptly  every  man  is  on  his  stand,  and  we  can 
hear  the  drivers  shout  and  the  dogs  bark,  as  they 
come  through  the  woods  and  swamps  towards  the 


24  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

hunters.  The  deer  are  supposed  to  run  in  front  of 
the  drivers,  but  the  older  and  wiser  ones,  trained  by 
long  experience,  crouch  in  the  thick  undergrowth 
and  run  back  when  the  men  have  passed.  How 
ever,  there  are  always  some  unwary  enough  to  run 
forward,  and  the  drivers  shout  out,  "  Big  buck  to 
the  right!"  or,  "Buck  to  the  left!"  as  the  case 
may  be,  and  every  one  grows  much  excited.  Some 
times  there  is  a  shot ;  but  quite  as  often  as  not  the 
deer  makes  off  out  of  range,  and  no  tangible  result 
comes  out  of  the  great  expectations  stirred  up  in 
the  hunters.  When  the  drivers  come  in  sight  of 
the  stands,  the  horn  is  sounded  and  responded  to 
by  my  father,  who  comes  up,  eagerly  asking  what 
has  been  seen ;  and  if  a  deer  has  been  wounded, 
he  sets  men  and  dogs  on  its  track.  If  nothing  has 
been  done,  he  decides  at  once  on  the  next  drive, 
hurries  every  one  into  his  wagon  or  on  to  his  horse 
with  an  energy  that  defies  dawdling,  —  and  so  off 
through  the  gay  autumn  woods  again  as  fast  as 
horse  and  man  can  go.  At  noon  comes  a  halt  and 
lunch  under  some  big  oak,  my  father  in  the  midst, 
stirring  up  every  one  to  undo  packages  of  sand 
wiches  and  open  ginger-ale  bottles,  with  an  aside 
to  A. :  "  There  is  more  than  we  can  manage ;  see 
that  the  extra  sandwiches  are  handed  over  to  the 
men ;  they  have  their  own  lunch,  but  these  won't 
hurt  them ;  they  have  the  work  to  do."  After 
luncheon  the  hunt  is  resumed  until  dusk,  my  father 
never  allowing  it  to  continue  after  that,  lest  a  deer 
should  be  wounded  and  the  men  not  able  to  track  it 


INTRODUCTION  25 

and  put  an  end  to  its  pain.  Back  to  the  mansion 
house,  the  cold  of  the  October  evening  nipping 
one's  fingers  and  making  the  blazing  wood  fires  in 
all  the  rooms  most  welcome.  Then  dinner  at  the 
long  hunt  table,  with  plenty  of  fun  and  the  food 
seasoned  with  the  appetite  of  an  open-air  day. 
After  dinner  my  father,  who  never  smoked,  would 
call  for  a  song  and  sit  listening  and  marking  time 
with  his  hand  in  the  air,  and  vehemently  applaud 
ing  "  Come  brave  the  seas  with  me,  love  !  "  or  some 
favorite  war  song.  And  so,  with  a  game  of  cards 
thrown  in,  would  pass  the  evening.  The  hunts 
usually  lasted  two  days  and  a  half,  and  at  first  my 
father  used  to  ask  to  it  all  Governor  Swain's  old 
friends.  As  these  began  to  fail  him,  my  brothers' 
friends,  and  business  or  political  allies  of  his  own, 
took  their  places ;  but  whoever  the  guests,  there 
was  always  an  atmosphere  of  outdoor  freshness  and 
cheer,  even  in  the  house,  which  both  parents  knew 
well  how  to  give. 

During  the  autumn  months,  we  usually  had  one 
or  more  severe  gales,  followed  the  next  day  by  a 
nor' wester,  with  a  clear  sky  and  a  strong  cold 
breeze,  which  covered  the  bay  with  white  caps. 
Such  a  morning  was  sure  to  provoke  this  speech : 
"  There  must  be  black  duck  blown  into  the  North 
Shore  ponds  by  this  time.  Who  wants  a  try  after 
them  with  me?"  Candidates  were  seldom  want 
ing  ;  but  oh,  how  cold  it  could  be !  We  would 
drive  in  an  open  wagon  in  the  teeth  of  the  wind  to 
the  north  shore,  and  there  my  father  would  draw 


26  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

up  his  horse  and  lay  his  finger  impressively  on  his 
lips  to  insure  silence,  for  the  black  duck  were 
keen  of  sight  and  hearing,  and  very  shy.  Then  he 
would  get  out  of  the  vehicle,  seize  his  gun,  and 
creep  over  the  hills,  a  single  opera-glass  in  hand, 
and  coming  in  sight  of  a  pond  would  peer  anxiously 
into  it.  If  there  were  no  duck,  his  charioteer  was 
signaled  to  come  on  by  a  wave  of  the  arm ;  but  if 
there  were  duck,  a  gesture  followed  which  was 
meant  to  keep  you  back,  but  was  sometimes  so  like 
the  other  as  to  be  mistaken  for  it.  You  soon  dis 
covered  your  error  if  you  advanced,  by  the  vehe 
ment  gestures  of  his  hand,  this  time  toward  the 
ground,  and  signifying  absolute  quiet.  As  a  rule 
the  ducks  managed  to  see  us  and  take  themselves 
off  just  as  he  was  ready  to  fire.  But  occasionally 
we  had  the  glory  of  fetching  one  or  two  of  them 
home.  Once,  on  a  cold,  gray,  autumn  day,  having 
left  me  in  the  woods  near  the  West  End  Pond,  he 
managed  to  wound  a  duck  badly;  and,  not  being 
able  to  stand  seeing  the  poor  creature  flapping 
about  on  the  pond,  he  stripped  and  swam  to  it,  re- 
clothed  himself  in  the  bitter  wind,  and  came  back 
to  the  wagon  with  his  game,  triumphant,  but  rather 
blue  from  the  bleak  bath  ! 

It  was  always  a  source  of  gratitude  to  my  father 
that  none  of  his  children  or  guests  ever  had  any 
serious  accident  at  Naushon.  In  spite  of  numerous 
hair-breadth  escapes  on  his  own  part,  he  always  de 
clared  that  he  was  at  bottom  a  very  prudent  man. 
I  think  that  he  was.  Good  riders  were .  chosen  for 


INTRODUCTION  27 

lively  horses ;  we  were  commanded  never  to  canter 
downhill ;  never  to  carry  guns  at  full  cock ;  never 
to  lash  the  main  sheet  when  sailing ;  and  it  was  a 
frequent  injunction,  when  any  expedition  was  start 
ing,  to  "  be  on  the  safe  side." 

These  holiday  times  at  Naushon,  strenuous  and 
over-active  as  they  sometimes  appeared  to  more  pla 
cid  natures,  were  always  his  chief  points  of  rest. 
From  them  he  set  forth  again  to  mercantile,  rail 
road,  and  public  work  of  all  sorts,  thoroughly  re 
freshed. 

I  have  scarcely  touched  on  the  romantic  side  of 
my  father's  nature.  This  appeared  most  strongly 
in  his  intense  love  of  the  sea.  Whether  it  was  due 
to  his  early  voyages,  or  to  his  brother's  profes 
sion,  certain  it  is  that  "  blue  water  "  much  attracted 
him ;  all  ships  were  deeply  interesting  to  him,  and 
dashing  through  the  waves  on  ship  or  yacht  in  a 
"  wholesail  breeze "  made  his  spirits  rise  like  a 
boy's.1  This  showed  itself  also  in  his  regard  for  Sir 
Walter  Scott's  novels  and  poems,  which  had  been 
the  delight  of  his  youth.  There  seemed  to  be,  so 
to  speak,  an  atmosphere  of  Scott  about  the  place. 
Horses  were  named  Ivanhoe,  Kedgauntlet,  Douglas, 

1  In  a  letter  to  his  mother,  written  while  at  sea,  October  10, 
1830,  he  says  :  "  What  can  be  more  magnificent,  for  instance,  than 
a  strong  gale  (right  astern,  mind)  of  a  clear  winter's  day  —  the  ship 
springing  forward  under  reefed  topsails,  and  nothing  to  be  seen 
around  but  the  white  foamy  tops  of  the  waves.  There  is  nothing 
that  elevates  the  spirits  so  much  as  this  ;  it  is  like  riding  a  fiery 
horse  ;  he  goes  at  his  own  speed,  but  he  carries  you  where  you 
guide." 


28  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

Bruce,  Eob  Roy,  and  Mosstrooper ;  we  children  had 
Scott  read  to  us  from  seven  years  old  onward ;  and 
I  can  remember  his  coming  frequently  to  my  bed 
side,  and  half  reciting,  half  chanting,  the  ballads, 
until  I  grew  too  sleepy  to  listen. 

In  1884,  at  our  parents'  golden  wedding,  we 
took  advantage  of  this  passion  for  Scott  to  celebrate 
it  with  the  performance  by  his  grandchildren,  and 
great  nephews  and  nieces,  of  scenes  from  "  The 
Lady  of  the  Lake,"  arranged  by  our  friend,  Dr. 
Edward  Emerson.  And  again,  in  1894,  on  the 
celebration  of  the  sixtieth  anniversary  of  the  wed 
ding  day,  "  The  Legend  of  Montrose,"  dramatized 
by  his  grandchildren  Edith  and  Cameron  Forbes, 
was  performed,  chiefly  by  some  of  the  same  com 
pany,  grown  from  boys  and  girls  into  young  men 
and  women.  Dugald  Dalgetty  had  always  been  a 
great  source  of  amusement  to  him.  He  was  glad 
to  see  this  old  friend  on  the  stage,  and  when  his 
favorite  songs,  "  Bonnie  Dundee,"  "  All  the  blue 
bonnets  are  over  the  border,"  and  "  The  MacGre- 
gor's  Gathering  "  were  given,  nothing  was  left  to 
be  desired.  To  these  and  other  Scotch  songs,  some 
vivid  and  romantic  chord  in  him  always  responded ; 
and  while  they  were  being  sung  he  often  found  it 
hard  to  keep  back  his  tears.  He  much  objected  to 
have  this  noticed,  and  would  cover  his  forehead  with 
his  hand,  under  pretense  of  listening  intently,  while 
with  his  thumb  he  would  surreptitiously  wipe  away 
the  unwelcome  tear. 

For  Burns,  also,  he  had  a  sincere  affection,  and  a 


INTRODUCTION  29 

weakness  for  divers  minor  poets.  His  "  Old  Scrap- 
Book,"  *  which  he  printed  and  distributed  among 
his  friends  who  came  to  the  golden  wedding,  in 

1  I  give  the  introduction  as  eminently  characteristic  of  its 
writer :  — 

This  volume  is  built  up  from  the  nucleus  of  an  old  scrap-book 
begun  about  1830,  and  from  a  few  old  verses  which  had  been  either 
copied  or  impressed  upon  the  memory  much  earlier.  The  original 
leaves  still  hold  a  few  flowers,  pressed  fifty  years  ago,  and  a  good 
many  newspaper  cuttings  of  various  periods.  To  these  last  have 
been  added  contributions  from  friends,  both  in  print  and  manuscript, 
many  songs  and  gleanings  from  the  then  current  literature  of  Eng 
land  and  America,  while  some  living  authors,  and  the  representatives 
of  others,  have  generously  permitted  the  free  use  of  their  treasures. 

If  I  were  to  catalogue  in  a  rough  way  the  patchwork  now  printed, 
it  would  read  something  thus  :  — 

Nu-rsery  hymns,  having  the  tones  of  voices  long  silent,  still  ringing 
in  one's  ears  with  the  distinctness  of  yesterday. 

Stealings,  from  school  and  other  books,  accumulated  in  the  desul 
tory  reading  of  a  lifetime  ;  and,  especially,  large  extracts  from  those 
poets  who  were  universally  recognized  fifty  years  ago,  and  whom  it 
seems  to  be  the  fashion  of  young  America  to  forget  or  ignore. 

Songs  of  the  hunt,  the  yacht,  the  Indiaman's  cabin  or  deck 
through  trade- winds  and  Cape  of  Good  Hope  storms,  or  the  coming 
typhoon,  —  some  having  for  an  accompaniment  the  rushing  tide  of 
Wood's  Holl,  or  the  squall  hurrying  down  the  sides  of  St.  Michael's 
or  Teneriffe's  mountains  ;  the  ripple  of  the  Miami  River  pushing 
out  of  the  Everglades,  the  foam  along  the  Florida  reefs,  or  the 
"  burr  "  of  the  hurricane  among  the  pines  of  the  St.  John's  River. 

Songs  of  the  concert-room,  theatre,  and  opera,  —  from  the  days  of 
Mario  and  Grisi,  Jenny  Lind  and  Rachel  (if  the  snake-like  hissing 
of  Rachel's  "Marseillaise"  can  be  called  singing),  down  to  the 
sturdy  Badialli  with  his  three  encores  of  "  Suoni  la  Tromba." 

National,  political,  and  war  songs,  —  from  the  days  of  the  Free- 
Soil  campaign  of  1856,  up  to  those  which  rang  through  the  camps 
of  Grant,  Sherman,  and  Sheridan,  carrying  the  undertone  which  so 
many  of  the  verses  got  from  the  outgoing  regiments  under  Gordon, 
Lee,  Williams,  Shaw,  Lowell,  and  Hallowell,  and  from  the  sadder 
march  when  they  returned  with  thinned  ranks  and  tattered  flags. 


30  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

1884,  shows  that  alongside  of  the  best  poems  he 
could  find  room  for  all  sorts  of  jingle.  His  liking 
for  either  seemed  to  be  quite  independent  of  literary 
merit.  Old  association  was  decidedly  the  strongest 
factor  in  determining  his  preferences,  and  during  his 
last  years  songs  and  poems  from  this  "  Old  Scrap- 
Book"  were  among  his  keenest  pleasures.  This 
weakness  for  old  associations  extended  even  to  his 
clothes.  I  have  often  wondered  why  one  person's 
garments,  irrespective  of  fashion,  seemed  to  partake 
of  their  owner's  individuality,  while  those  of  another 

In  short,  to  paraphrase  Halleck,  — 

Songs  of  the  peasant  and  the  peer, 
Songs  of  the  bridal  and  the  bier, 
The  welcome  and  farewell. 

Poems  of  the  parlor,  beginning  under  the  low  ceiling  of  the  old 
Milton  House,  then  through  Pearl  Street  and  Pine  Bank,  reaching 
over  to  Russell  Sturgis's  pleasant  quarters  on  the  Praya  Grande 
of  Macao,  and  onward  still  to  my  little  ranch  of  Mt.  St.  George 
in  California,  —  by  no  means  forgetting  Naushon  and  Swan  Island. 

Poems  heard  from  the  lips  of  Emerson,  Lowell,  Poe,  Holmes, 
Fanny  Kemble,  and  the  beautiful  Catherine  Sedgwick,  afterwards 
Mrs.  Heine. 

All  these  and  a  thousand  more  such  threads  run  through  the 
memory  like  echoes  from  the  past,  when  one  tries  to  string  together 
the  rhymes  which  have  been  floating  in  the  mind  through  over  half 
a  century. 

This  crude  medley  of  Poem  and  Song,  Epigram  and  Charade,  is 
offered  with  some  hesitation  as  a  token  of  remembrance  to  the  few 
old  friends  who  still  surround  me,  and  to  the  many  younger  ones 
who  are  so  rapidly  taking  our  places. 

If  it  saves  some  eyes  from  straining  over  faded  manuscript  and 
fine  print,  or  recalls  scenes  and  tones  of  voice  or  of  music  connected 
with  its  verses,  it  will  have  answered  the  rather  vague  purpose  with 
which  it  has  been  so  loosely  thrown  together. 

J.  M.  F. 


INTRODUCTION  31 

did  not  appear  to  be  so  affected  at  all.  My  father's 
soft  felt  hats,  after  a  few  days'  wear,  grew  into  such 
characteristic  shapes  that  one  could  swear  to  their 
identity  anywhere.  Capes  took  unmistakable  folds, 
and  boots  almost  turned  in  their  toes  of  their  own 
accord,  as  he  did.  He  was  scrupulously  dainty 
about  underwear,  but  habitually  careless  of  the 
outer  man,  and  loved  his  old  raiment  so  dearly  that 
one  had  almost  to  use  force  to  get  possession  of 
it  with  a  view  to  its  transmission.  On  one  occa 
sion,  when  he  seemed  to  be  gaining  flesh,  a  relative, 
who  was  aware  of  his  peculiarity,  declared  that  it 
was  "an  effort  of  nature  to  get  rid  of  his  old 
clothes." 

He  did  not  care  for  reading  of  a  ponderous  kind, 
saying  that  his  "  brain  wanted  rest."  Travels,  nov 
els  of  adventure,  the  Indian  mutiny,  and  all  such 
contemporaneous  history  appealed  to  him;  but  he 
used  to  say  that  his  medieval  history  he  got  from 
Shakspere  and  Scott.  Modern  fiction  of  the  intro 
spective  type  he  simply  ignored,  or,  if  he  tried  it, 
would  put  it  down,  declaring  it  to  be  "tedious." 
Of  plays  he  must  have  been  very  fond,  for  he  never 
tired  of  rehearsing  Charles  Kemble's  excellences, 
but  his  hearing  was  just  enough  impaired,  even  in 
my  childhood,  to  spoil  for  him  this  sort  of  enjoy 
ment.  Fanny  Kemble's  readings,  too,  he  had  very 
much  admired.  He  cared  for  these  more  than  her 
acting,  and  went  to  hear  them  whenever  he  could. 
I  recollect  his  telling  me  how  her  rendering  of  the 
witches  in  "  Macbeth  "  made  his  eyebrows  stand  on 


32  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

end,  a  fact  of  which  he  was  unconscious  until  he  felt 
them  pushing  against  his  theatre  glasses !  He  had 
a  warm  personal  feeling  for  Mrs.  Kemble,  and  their 
friendship  lasted  until  her  death. 

Music,  save  and  except  his  favorite  songs,  bal 
lads,  and  hymns,  was  a  blank  to  him,  and,  though 
he  liked  many  operas  of  the  old  school,  he  never 
went  to  instrumental  concerts  in  my  time.  He  suf 
fered  pretty  poor  singing  sometimes  at  home,  so 
long  as  no  one  sang  a  shrill,  high  note,  and  all 
confined  themselves  to  his  "  particular  vanities  "  as 
he  called  them.  These  he  always  greeted  with  im 
mense  enthusiasm,  and  our  friend  Miss  Emma  "Ware, 
who  survived  him  only  a  few  days,  used,  as  long  as 
she  was  able,  to  come  and  play  old  song  after  old 
song  to  him,  giving  him  a  pleasure  beyond  words. 
Military  bands  excited  and  inspired  him,  and  his 
musical  preferences  were,  like  those  of  Queen  Eliza 
beth,  "  for  stormy  or  lively  "  airs. 

My  father  used  to  like  pictures ;  and  could  never 
look  enough  at  those  of  his  friend,  Mr.  William 
Hunt ;  but  in  other  cases  the  liking  was  largely  for 
the  artist's  sake ;  and  he  often  valued  what  seemed 
to  others  to  be  a  fearful  daub,  if  only  it  repre 
sented  a  scene  he  knew,  or  was  painted  by  some  one 
whom  he  liked  and  wished  to  help.  Grand  natural 
scenery,  however,  at  all  times  delighted  him,  and 
gave  him  one  of  the  greatest  pleasures  of  his  many 
journeys. 

I  suspect  that  his  architectural  ideas  were  very 
similar  to  his  musical  ones  so  far  as  the  aesthetic 


INTRODUCTION  33 

sense  went.  In  any  building  which  he  personally 
used  he  wanted  room,  warmth,  and  convenience  ; 
he  did  not  like  showy  coloring,  inside  or  out ;  but 
there  ended  his  interest.  I  recollect,  however,  that 
he  greatly  enjoyed  some  old  halls  and  castles  in 
England.  Time  had  never  served  for  any  early 
artistic  training,  neither  do  I  think  that  his  natural 
tastes  lay  at  all  in  these  directions. 

I  ought  not,  however,  to  forget  among  the  arts  one 
which  my  father  did  most  heartily  enjoy,  namely, 
that  of  oratory.  Daniel  Webster's  Seventh  of  March 
speech  was  well-nigh  condoned  for  the  sake  of 
many  another,  which  for  both  manner  and  matter 
had  led  my  father  captive.  Wendell  Phillips,  too, 
was  almost  forgiven  for  his  abuse  of  Andrew  and 
his  love  of  General  Butler  and  the  greenback  party, 
for  the  sake  of  his  wonderful  power  as  an  orator. 
George  William  Curtis  was  one  whom  my  father 
enjoyed  hearing  speak,  especially  when,  at  the 
Convention  of  1876  in  Cincinnati,  he  appeared 
contrasted  with  General  Logan.  He  faithfully  at 
tended  Mr.  Emerson's  lectures,  much  admiring  his 
grave,  clear  enunciation.  Mr.  Everett  he  cared  less 
for;  though,  as  he  used  to  say,  "he  could  speak 
smoothly."  Perhaps  he  felt  his  own  deficiency  in 
these  directions ;  and  hence  the  more  admired  in 
others  what  he  himself  lacked.  Be  that  as  it  may, 
I  have  seldom  seen  him  stirred  to  more  enthusiasm 
than  when  speaking  of  the  occasions  on  which  he 
had  listened  to  some  of  these  great  men. 

I  should  not  forget  to  mention  another  source  of 


34  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

pleasure,  namely,  the  society  of  the  men  composing 
the  Saturday  Club.  This  was  a  club  whose  mem 
bers  met  in  Boston,  on  the  last  Saturday  of  the 
month,  during  the  greater  part  of  the  year,  to  dine 
together  at  the  Parker  House.  So  much  has  been 
told  of  those  delightful  gatherings  in  the  biogra 
phies  of  some  of  the  members  as  to  relieve  me  from 
saying  anything  about  them,  except  that  my  father 
regarded  them  as  among  the  greatest  pleasures  of 
his  life,  —  bringing,  as  they  did,  meetings  with 
Emerson,  Lowell,  Longfellow,  Holmes,  Agassiz, 
Wyman,  Judge  Hoar,  and  others  whose  names  are 
household  words,  not  merely  in  Boston,  but  through 
out  the  country.  Besides  all  else,  as  each  member 
could  bring  one  guest,  he  had  the  opportunity  of 
introducing  any  distinguished  visitor  to  the  best 
wits  that  were  to  be  found  in  our  good  old  town. 
At  home  we  used  to  enjoy  these  occasions  vicari 
ously  ;  and  he  would  bring  home  to  us  the  latest 
bit  of  literary,  political,  or  scientific  gossip,  or  the 
last  bon  mot  of  Judge  Hoar  or  Dr.  Holmes.  It 
was  this  most  genial  of  poets  who  wrote  the  verses 
given  below,  for  the  Saturday  that  fell  next  after 
my  father's  eightieth  birthday,  when  they  dined 
together  at  the  club.  I  can  only  hope  their  kind 
author  took  as  much  pleasure  in  writing  as  his 
friend  did  in  hearing  them  :  — 


INTRODUCTION  ]  30 

TO   J.  M.  F.  ON  HIS  EIGHTIETH  BIRTHDAY. 
February  23, 1813— February  23,  1893. 

I  know  thee  well.     From  olden  time 
Thou  hadst  a  weakness  for  a  rhyme, 
And  wilt  with  gracious  smile  excuse 
The  languor  of  a  laggard  muse, 
Whose  gait  betrays  in  every  line 
The  weight  of  years  outnumbering  thine. 
And  who  will  care  for  blame  or  praise, 
When  love  each  syllable  betrays  ? 

The  seven-barred  gate  has  long  been  past, 
The  eighth  tall  decade  cleared  at  last ; 
But  when  its  topmost  bar  is  crossed 
Think  not  that  life  its  charm  hath  lost : 
Ginger  will  still  be  hot  in  mouth, 
And  winter  winds  blow  sometimes  south, 
And  youth  might  almost  long  to  take 
A  slice  of  fourscore's  frosted  cake. 

Thrice  welcome  to  the  chosen  band, 
Culled  from  the  crowd  by  Nature's  hand : 
No  warmer  heart  for  us  shall  beat, 
No  freer  hand  in  friendship  meet. 
Long  may  he  breathe  our  mortal  air, 
For  heaven  has  souls  enough  to  spare. 
Lay  at  his  feet  the  fairest  flowers  — 
Thank  God  he  still  is  earth's  and  ours. 

One  subject  remains  for  me  to  touch  upon,  and 
this  but  lightly,  as  is  due  to  one  of  his  reserve  with 
regard  to  all  matters  on  which  he  felt  deeply.  He 
used  to  say  that  the  Unitarian  Church  was  the  one 
most  liberal,  and  therefore  likely  to  go  forward, 


36  JOHN  MURRAY    FORBES 

that  he  knew,  and  he  always  contributed  liberally 
to  the  support  of  that  church  in  Milton.  When  I 
was  a  child  he  always  went  to  hear  "  Brother  Put 
nam/'  as  he  called  his  friend,  Dr.  George  Putnam, 
the  distinguished  minister  in  Roxbury.  He  also 
much  admired  Theodore  Parker,  while  for  Mr. 
Emerson  his  reverence  was  very  deep.  Later  on  he 
seemed  not  to  care  much  about  churches,  saying, 
"  We  all  know  very  little."  Once  he  said  to  me 
that  "  universal  law  presupposes  a  law-giver,"  and 
that  "  somehow  we  must  believe  in  thought  behind 
matter."  But  in  general  he  spoke  seldom  on  such 
subjects.  His  creed  might  be  said  to  be  Laborare 
est  or  are.  VN><  k  v 


CHAPTER  II 

SCHOOL  DAYS 

THE  notes  of  which  the  present  and  succeeding 
chapters  largely  consist  were  written  by  my  father 
in  1884 ;  and  had  slight  additions  made  to  them  by 
him  in  1889.  To  explain  their  opening  it  should 
be  said  that  my  grandfather,  Ralph  Bennet  Forbes, 
detained  in  France  on  business,  was  joined  by  his 
wife  in  1811,  and  that  after  some  troublesome  ad 
ventures,  all  of  which  may  be  found  in  my  uncle's 
book,1  they  found  themselves  at  the  beginning  of 
1813  in  Bordeaux.  It  is  to  her  voyage  out  that 
the  following  extract  from  a  letter  dated  "  Boston, 
March  23,  1812,"  refers. 

WILLIAM  STURGIS  TO  JOHN  P.  GUSHING. 

.  .  .  Most  truly  do  I  join  in  your  wishes  for 
the  success  of  our  friend  Forbes ;  he  is  a  most  in 
defatigable  fellow,  and  she  a  most  extraordinary 
woman.  She  went  from  hence  in  January,  1811,  in 
a  little  schooner  laden  with  fish ;  and  after  encoun 
tering  every  species  of  distress  and  danger  was 
finally  landed,  from  a  British  frigate  that  captured 

1  Personal  Reminiscences,  by  R.  B.  Forbes.     Second  edition,  Bos 
ton,  Little,  Brown  &  Co.,  1882. 


38  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

her,  on  a  small  island  near  the  coast  of  France,  and 
reached  her  husband. 


Here  follow  my  father's  own  notes,  necessarily 
much  abridged :  — 

"  They  tell  me  I  was  born  at  Bordeaux,  in  France, 
on  the  23d  of  February,  1813,  and  this  is  con 
firmed  by  a  certificate  ( de  naissance '  from  some 
officer  of  Napoleon  the  Great;  while  color  is  also 
given  to  the  tale  by  my  early  recollections  of  being 
called  Johnny  Crapaud.  As,  however,  my  parents 
were  merely  travelers  in  France,  I  am  assured  that 
my  title  to  citizenship  is  as  good  as  anybody's. 

"On  our  way  home,  when  I  was  three  months 
old,  on  the  schooner  Orders  in  Council,  we  were 
attacked  by  one  or  more  Guernsey  privateers,  whom 
we  repulsed  after  a  spirited  fight :  an  early  experi 
ence  in  naval  warfare  which  gave  me  the  advantage 
in  after  life,  when  discussing  such  matters,  of  one 
speaking  with  authority,  and  on  one  occasion  I 
used  it  very  effectively.  In  1861  a  certain  Mr. 
Smith,  M.  P.,  brought  me  letters  of  introduction, 
and  at  dinner  he  positively  denied  that  England 
had  been  guilty  of  the  barbarism  of  fitting  out  pri 
vateers.  This  was  a  very  practical  question  then,  as 
the  rebels  were  preparing  to  send  out  this  class  of 
pirates  from  England.  I  answered  Mr.  Smith  by 
telling  him  that  I  had  been  myself  in  action  with  a 
British  privateer,  and  as  I  gave  no  particulars,  he 
could  only  accept  my  evidence.  There  is  a  family 
tradition  that  on  board  the  Orders  in  Council  the 


SCHOOL  DAYS  89 

baby  was  put  down  in  the  forecastle,  with  a  dose  of 
laudanum  in  his  stomach  and  his  ears  stuffed  with 
cotton  wool  to  avoid  harm  from  the  noise  of  the 
cannon. 

"  My  father  had  married,  early  in  life,  Margaret 
Perkins,  the  youngest  child  of  one  of  the  most  pro 
sperous  Boston  families.  My  two  uncles,  James 
and  T.  H.  Perkins,  were  among  the  largest,  if 
not  the  largest,  East  India  merchants  in  the  United 
States,  having  a  branch  house  in  China  (then  four 
to  six  months  distant  in  time),  which  was  managed 
by  my  cousin,  J.  P.  Gushing,  and  later  by  my 
brother,  Thomas  Tunno  Forbes.  My  other  uncle, 
Samuel  G.  Perkins,  was  engaged  in  the  Calcutta 
trade,  when  not  occupied  by  his  more  congenial 
pursuit  of  gardening. 

"  I  have  heard  my  father  spoken  of  as  a  man  of 
great  energy,  and  originally  of  the  warmest  feelings 
and  the  most  genial  and  generous  temperament, 
somewhat  resembling  in  character  my  brother  Ben- 
net  ;  but  he  had  been  prostrated  by  overwork  at 
about  forty-five  years  of  age,  after  being  unsuc 
cessful  in  his  very  energetic  business  life,  and  as  I 
remember  him  during  my  early  days  he  was  very 
much  broken  up  by  gout  and  a  partial  paralysis. 
He  died  in  October,  1824,  being  then  about  fifty- 
one  years  old. 

"  The  visible  means  of  support  of  my  parents, 
with  five  children  at  home,  was,  I  remember,  $1200 
per  annum,  contributed  by  my  three  Perkins  uncles. 
I  well  recall  my  mother's  patient  patching  and  darn- 


40  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

ing,  my  sister  Emma's  vigilant  eye  to  our  wants, 
corporeal  and  spiritual,  and  especially  the  latter  on 
Sunday  afternoons,  when  she  always  read  to  us  our 
Bible  and  hymns. 

"My  earliest  recollection  now  (1884)  is  of  the 
little  low-roofed  house  in  Milton  between  the  ceme 
tery  and  the  Randolph  turnpike,  —  still  standing  and 
still  called  the  Peggy  Howe  house,1  —  which  my 
father  had  hired.  Later  comes  in  the  more  com 
fortable  home,  on  Milton  Hill,  given  or  lent  to  my 
father  by  his  brother,  '  The  Consul/  John  Murray 
Forbes,  where  my  childhood  and  early  school  days 
were  passed.  My  first  school  experience  was  under 
the  not  severe  rod  of  Miss  Polly  Crane,  who  ruled 
with  steady  hand  and  literally  a  very  long  stick, 
with  which  she  used  to  reach  the  whole  class  without 
leaving  her  post;  and  my  next  school  was  under 
Master  Pierce  in  the  town  schoolhouse. 

"  It  stands  recorded  by  the  elder  members  of  the 
family  that  I  was  good  at  my  letters  and  had  a 
marked  taste  for  the  Bible,  which  led  them  fondly 
to  predict  the  church  as  my  vocation  and  to  give  me 
the  agreeable  name  of  '  The  Bishop/  which  I  much 
preferred  to  the  older  one,  hinting  at  my  foreign 
birthplace.  I  ought  to  add,  however,  that  the  pos 
sibility  of  such  a  fate  was  averted  in  my  case  by 
the  forcing  of  the  Bible  upon  me  in  early  life,  in 
season  and  out  of  season,  so  that  it  became  to  me 
even  as  salts  and  senna  in  the  mouth.  I  hope  that 
my  descendants  may  be  treated  with  more  discre- 

1  Pulled  down  and  rebuilt  in  1889. 


SCHOOL  DAYS  41 

tion  and  that  it  may  become  food  to  them  instead 
of  physic. 

"  Among  our  pleasures  I  remember  the  drives, 
when  I  first  learned  to  hold  the  reins,  squeezed  in 
between  my  father  and  mother,  the  vehicle  being 
old  Jerry  Crane's  yellow  two-wheeled  chaise  with  no 
top,  shabby  and  henspecked,  drawn  by  his  old  white 
horse  which  looked  the  very  image  of  the  pale  horse 
in  Scripture  lore.  For  a  very  small  payment  this 
team  was  hired  occasionally  from  its  daily  routine 
of  peddling  fowls  and  vegetables,  and  with  great 
enjoyment  we  drove  about  the  town. 

"This  early  life  of  strict  economy,  with  each 
member  of  the  family  obliged  to  make  little  sacri 
fices  for  the  others,  and  especially  for  our  sick 
father,  was  the  best  training  that  could  have  been 
given.  My  mother  so  regarded  it,  and  not  merely 
from  pride,  but  from  forethought  and  principle,  she 
refused  the  larger  aid  which  her  brothers  would 
have  furnished,  and  would  only  accept  what  seemed 
absolutely  necessary. 

"  As  my  brothers  Tom  and  Bennet  got  up  in  the 
world,  they  were  able  to  help,  and  more  comfortable 
housekeeping  followed,  but  never  more  cheerfulness 
nor  more  unbounded  hospitality  than  the  little  old 
house  with  its  narrow  limits  and  narrow  means 
always  supplied.  Where  the  numbers  who  came 
there  slept,  and  how  they  were  fed,  even  on  our 
plain  fare,  the  Lord  only  knows." 

The  following  letter  from  my  father  to  his  eld 
est  brother,  Tom,  in  Canton,  is  the  earliest  which 


42  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

has  been  preserved.  It  is  dated  Milton,  June, 
1821 :  — 

"  Ben  has  been  with  us  a  week,  and  is  in  very 
good  health.  The  Canton  Packet  ran  on  shore  on 
the  southern  part  of  George's  Island,  but  received 
no  injury,  as  she  was  aground  only  nine  hours.  It 
happened  on  a  dark  rainy  night  with  a  pilot.  We 
are  all  writing  to  you  except  sister  Peg,  who  left 
her  letter  to  ride  on  horseback.  I  went  to  Boston 
to  spend  election.  In  the  morning  I  went  on  the 
Common,  and  called  for  a  glass  of  lemonade  in  high 
style,  and  the  consequence  was  a  dizziness  in  my 
head.  I  could  get  to  cousin  Nancy's  without  fall 
ing.  As  I  have  told  you  this  secret,  I  should  like 
to  know  whether  you  ever  got  tipsy.  I  received 
your  painting  by  the  Volunteer,  which  delighted  us 
all  very  much,  also  the  walking  toys.  My  adven 
ture1  sells  very  well  in  the  village.  I  shall  send 
the  money  out  by  Ben  if  he  goes  direct.  Mary  and 
Fanny  send  their  love  to  you :  as  for  the  rest,  they 
must  speak  for  themselves.  Excuse  this  bad  writ 
ing.  Ben  says  you  have  a  box  of  paints,  which 
would  be  very  acceptable  to  your  humble  servant 
and  affectionate  brother,  J.  M.  F." 

My  father's  notes  continue  :  — 

"  The  first  break  in  this  wholesome,  hardy  life  at 

1  My  uncle  Tom  had  a  "  privilege,"  as  it  was  called,  of  space  in 
the  Perkins  vessels,  and  under  it  had  given  J.  M.  F.  a  little  "  adven 
ture  "  in  tea  or  silk  or  perhaps  Chinese  toys.  These  adventures 
gradually  accumulated,  until  at  seventeen,  when  he  went  out  to 
China  in  the  Lintin,  he  began  his  commercial  life  with  above 
$1000  of  his  own.  —  ED. 


SCHOOL  DAYS  43 

Milton  was  my  transfer,  when  about  eight  and  a 
half  years  old,  to  the  Franklin  Academy  in  the 
north  parish  of  Andover,  kept  by  Master,  or  as  he 
was  called,  Preceptor,  Putnam.  He  was,  I  suppose, 
a  good  teacher :  certainly  a  sharp  disciplinarian.  It 
was  altogether  a  rough  place.  Under  a  leaning 
roof  of  not  a  large  room  were  three  large  beds,  and 
in  each  not  less  than  two,  and  sometimes  I  think 
three,  boys  of  nine  to  twelve  years  old;  and  as 
washing  was  included  in  the  board  bill  there  was 
some  premium  or  bonus  of  cake  or  extra  bread  and 
butter  applied  to  reward  those  who  wore  their  shirts 
longest ! 

"  In  those  days  wrestling  at  arm's  length  was  the 
chief  game  with  young  and  old,  and  on  election 
days  and  other  holidays  the  young  men  used  to 
collect  and  try  their  strength.  Andover  gave  me 
such  good  training  at  it  that  I  afterwards  held  my 
own  among  bigger  boys  at  Hound  Hill,  and  I  never 
lost  my  skill  at  it.  After  my  own  boys  had  got  to 
be  twice  as  strong  and  much  heavier  than  I,  I  have 
often  laid  Will  and  Malcolm  on  their  backs  at  arm's 
length,  or  elbow  and  collar  grip  as  it  was  called  at 
Andover." 

The  following  account,  condensed  from  my  fa 
ther's  notes,  covers  the  remaining  five  years  of  his 
school  life :  — 

"In  October,  1823,  I  was  sent  to  the  famous 
school  at  Bound  Hill,  Northampton,  then  lately 
opened  by  Messrs.  Cogswell  and  Bancroft.  The 
grounds  covered  perhaps  a  hundred  acres,  with  fine 


44  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

woodland  and  beautiful  views  of  the  Connecticut 
valley  and  of  Mt.  Holyoke  and  Mt.  Tom.  Mr. 
Cogswell  was  a  learned  man  and  a  man  of  the 
world,  and  to  him  was  largely  due  the  breadth  and 
liberality  of  the  school,  and  its  great  success.  The 
teaching  was  of  no  meagre  kind,  for  Germany, 
Italy,  France,  and  Spain  each  gave  us  of  its  best. 
But  it  was  the  pleasant  and  friendly  relations  of 
Mr.  Cogswell  and  his  masters  with  the  boys,  and  the 
gymnastic  and  out-of-door  education,  which  made 
Round  Hill  peculiar.  The  boys  were  taught  to 
ride,  had  skating  and  swimming  in  their  seasons, 
and  wrestling,  baseball,  and  football;  and,  during 
the  summer,  excursions  on  the  '  ride  and  tie '  plan, 
of  sometimes  over  a  hundred  miles  and  back,  were 
undertaken,  accompanied  by  Mr.  Cogswell,  who  was 
himself  a  great  walker.  He  and  some  of  the  boys 
carried  hammers,  and  he  would  give  us  a  geological 
lecture  when  we  sat  down  to  rest.  Under  the  ex 
cellent  rules  I  am  sure  no  schoolboys  ever  did  less 
mischief  to  the  farmers'  orchards  and  fences ;  in 
deed,  we  were  warmly  welcomed  everywhere,  and 
the  only  uncomfortable  reminiscence  which  remains 
is  that  of  some  blistered  feet  and  sunburned  faces 
from  those  long  summer  walks. 

"  I  must  not  forget  the  little  town  — '  Cronytown ' 
—  which  we  built.  In  parties  of  twos  and  threes 
we  burrowed  into  the  side  hill,  made  a  low  chimney, 
and  front  door,  looking  south,  with  height  enough 
to  stand  erect  and  a  real  lock  and  key.  Here  many 
rabbits  and  an  occasional  partridge,  the  product  of 


SCHOOL  DAYS  45 

our  traps  or  our  bows,  were  cooked,  and  many  an  ear 
of  sweet  corn  roasted,  especially  on  Saturday  after 
noons;  and  while  there  was  much  fun  I  never  knew 
of  any  harm  growing  out  of  the  indulgence.  If  it 
did  no  other  good,  it  helped  to  confine  us  to  the 
killing  of  game  which  we  could  eat.  Let  me  not 
forget,  however,  our  once  catching  a  tartar.  Visit 
ing  one  of  our  steel  traps,  the  foremost  boy,  hear 
ing  a  scratching  of  the  ground  as  we  approached, 
jumped  boldly  forward  to  secure  the  prize,  when  in 
stead  of  bunny  he  was  met  by  the  pungent  salute 
of  the  black  and  white  American  sable,  and  beat  an 
ignominious  retreat  amid  the  jeers  of  his  companions. 

"  Strange  as  it  may  seem  to  the  youngsters  who 
have  made  fun  of  my  misses  in  later  life  with  the 
gun,  I  was  one  of  the  best  archers  among  the  hun 
dred  and  fifty,  and  only  remember  T.  G.  Appleton 
as  a  successful  competitor. 

"  The  history  of  my  life  at  Eound  Hill  School 
would  not  be  complete  if  I  forgot  fisticuffs.  I 
think  there  was  no  teaching  of  boxing  as  an  art 
there,  and  fighting  was  discountenanced  without 
being  too  rigidly  punished,  but  one  encounter  I 
remember  in  which  I  took  a  hand,  and  this  was  a 
regular  duel  with  two  seconds  on  each  side.  My 
antagonist  was  a  boy  rather  bigger  than  I,  but  by 
no  means  so  quick  as  I  then  was,  and  after  two  or 
three  bouts  I  was  decided  the  victor,  having  closed 
my  opponent's  eyes,  but  at  the  expense  of  dislocat 
ing  both  my  thumbs,  which  in  my  unskillful  fash 
ion  I  had  extended  too  far.  Another  threatened 


46  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

attack  from  one  of  the  bullies  of  the  school  I  once 
stopped  with  my  bat,  as  he  was  entirely  too  strong 
for  a  fair  fight  with  fists.  My  notion  then  as  now 
was,  after  Polonius'  advice,  —  Avoid  getting  into  a 
fight  by  all  honorable  means,  but,  once  in,  so  con 
duct  the  war  that  your  adversary  would  not  soon 
hanker  after  another.  From  this  principle  of  ac 
tion,  as  much  as  anything,  I  had  very  few  quarrels 
in  school  or  since ;  and  both  theory  and  practice  I 
strongly  recommend  to  my  descendants. 

"  To  sum  up  the  physical  results  of  Round  Hill. 
When  I  left  it  in  1828  to  enter  my  uncles'  Boston 
office,  I  was  strong,  healthy,  and  self-reliant,  though 
not  remarkable  in  any  degree ;  a  fair  swimmer,  a 
good  shot,  and  best  of  all  a  good  rider ;  and  I  never 
can  be  grateful  enough  for  the  advantages  which 
Mr.  Cogswell  conferred." 

I  now  give  a  selection  from  my  father's  school 
boy  letters  to  different  members  of  his  family,  to 
gether  with  extracts  from  two  letters  written  by  Mr. 
Cogswell  to  my  grandmother,  when  his  pupil  was 
leaving  Bound  Hill :  — 

TO  HIS  MOTHER. 

NORTHAMPTON,  November  2, 1823. 

DEAR  MOTHER,  —  I  hope  to  receive  my  pictures 
and  bed-quilt.  I  mean  to  write  you  a  long  letter, 
therefore  you  will  not  have  another  for  a  fortnight. 
.  .  .  Last  Sunday  I  fell  down  and  hurt  my  knee, 
and  last  Saturday  I  climbed  a  large  tree  and  strained 
the  cords  so  that  I  can  hardly  walk.  I  hope  that 


SCHOOL  DAYS  47 

you  will  write  me  a  good  long  letter  with  the  pic 
tures.  I  find  that  none  of  the  boys  are  very  good 
climbers,  so  that  I  gained  the  prize  for  climbing, 
which  was  a  fine  crossbow.  I  now  study  with  Mr. 
Cogswell,  which  I  like  very  much.  We  are  getting 
to  be  very  fine  runners ;  we  have  run  half  a  mile  in 
three  minutes  and  a  half ;  we  run  twice  a  day.  .  .  . 
My  leg  has  prevented  my  going  to  meeting  to-day, 
therefore  I  can  find  time  to  write  another  letter  to 
you.  ...  If  there  should  be  an  opportunity  for 
China  do  tell  me,  that  I  may  write  a  handsome  long 
letter  to  Tom.  If  you  send  me  up  any  cake  or 
sweetmeats,  depend  upon  it  I  will  let  you  have  them 
again  or  I  will  give  them  to  the  boys,  as  I  now  want 
only  manly  things.  .  .  .  You  must  send  your  let 
ters,  which  I  suppose  you  have  received  before  this 
time,  from  Tom  and  Ben.  I  continue  to  feel  very 
happy  here.  I  do  not  think  that  Mary  will  write 
me  a  separate  letter  now,  I  don't  want  her  to  ;  how 
ever,  I  hope  that  she  will  sometimes  put  into  your 
letters  a  specimen,  to  see  whether  she  can  beat  the 
writing  in  the  letter  which  I  sent  you  by  Emma,  if 
she  dares  to  try.  I  hope  that  little  F.  goes  on  bet 
ter  than  she  did  when  I  left  home.  I  hope  there  is 
some  good  schoolmistress  in  Milton,  for  I  am  certain 
if  they  go  to  Daddy  Fairbanks  much  longer  they 
will  be  spoilt  forever.  Tell  Emma  that  I  think  she 
could  manage  them  better  than  any  lady,  as  she  has 
a  pretty  good  head.  ...  I  suppose  you  will  come 
to  Northampton  in  the  spring  vacation.  I  hope 
that  you  will  follow  the  plan  I  am  going  to  propose, 


48  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

which  is  that  you  set  out  with  me  about  a  week 
before  the  end  of  the  vacation,  then  I  can  drive  you 
all  around.  J.  M.  F. 

TO  T.   T.   FORBES,   CANTON,   CHINA. 

NORTHAMPTON,  January  16, 1825. 

MY  DEAR  BROTHER,  — .  .  .  Mr.  Cogswell  is  as 
fine  a  man  as  there  is  to  be  found ;  he  is  very  amia 
ble  and  pleasant  and  has  much  knowledge,  not  only 
of  the  languages,  but  of  natural  history ;  he  was  a 
lawyer,  but  disliked  it ;  he  has  traveled  over  almost 
all  Europe  and  part  of  Asia  and  Africa;  he  has 
been  as  kind  to  me  as  possible.  ...  I  am  reading 
Cicero's  orations,  which  is  pretty  hard  to  me.  ...  I 
sleep  in  Mr.  Cogswell's  house,  in  which  point  I  think 
I  am  very  lucky,  as  he  is  so  kind  to  me.  Once  one 
or  two  of  us  dressed  ourselves  as  quickly  as  we 
could  when  we  were  called,  and  went  down  into  the 
place  where  we  wash.  I  having  some  paper,  we  got 
some  wood  in  the  fireplace,  I  made  a  fire,  then 
Mr.  C.  came  down  to  tell  us  it  was  school  time. 
He  asked  who  made  the  fire ;  we  told  him  we  did. 
He  then  told  us  we  might  make  one  every  A.  M. 
if  wanted,  and  might  keep  it  there  all  day.  We 
thanked  him  and  told  him  we  would  like  it.  We 
then  got  all  the  boys  together  and  got  our  own 
wood,  for  there  is  plenty  round  in  the  woods,  and 
we  take  turns  every  A.  M.  This  may  show  what  kind 
of  a  man  he  is.  I  suppose  you  know  all  the  news 
better  than  I  do.  I  am  as  ignorant  as  if  I  were  a 
hermit  in  the  Indian  forest.  ,  I  should  like  to 


SCHOOL  DAYS  49 

ask  a  favor,  though  you  may  think  it  foolish.  It  is 
that  you  would  send  me  some  Chinese  insects,  of 
which  I  should  like  to  make  a  present  to  Mr. 
Hentz.  He  has  a  very  fine  collection  of  insects  and 
seems  to  prize  those  he  had  from  China  very  much. 
He  has  always  been  very  kind  to  me.  I  hope  you 
will  not  put  yourself  to  any  trouble  about  it. 
Your  grateful  and  affectionate  brother, 

J.  M.  F. 

TO   THE   SAME. 

ROUND  HILL,  NORTHAMPTON,  June  6, 1828. 
.  .  .  You  may  be  sure  that  I  shall  receive  [your] 
advice  and  wishes  as  to  my  conduct  as  anything 
rather  than  those  of  a  taskmaster,  and  I  trust  that  I 
shall  observe  them  more  strictly  than  if  they  were 
so.  I  can  hardly  say  that  I  was  surprised  at  your 
determination  as  to  my  going  to  Canton.  I  have 
thought  much  of  it  since  you  left  and  had  almost 
come  to  the  same  conclusion  myself,  and  I  have 
thought  for  some  time  that  whether  I  went  into  the 
Perkins's  store  in  Boston  or  not,  I  must  end  by 
going  to  Canton.  It  is  true  that  it  must  be  painful 
to  me  to  leave  all  our  friends  here,  but  I  feel  that  it 
is  better  to  make  any  sacrifice  than  to  be  a  useless 
member  of  our  family.  It  is  true  that  in  a  little 
while  I  might  make  myself  useful  in  the  Perkins's 
store  ;  but  I  know  from  some  examples,  and  perhaps 
from  my  own  little  experience,  how  difficult  it  is  to 
give  my  attention  to  anything  in  a  place  like  Bos 
ton,  though  I  think  I  could  do  it.  These  are  my 


50  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

sentiments  at  present,  and  were  they  otherwise,  I 
should  not  hesitate  to  give  up  my  judgment  to 
yours :  and  I  think  they  will  not  change.  .  .  .  As  to 
manners,  etc.,  I  have  a  couple  of  monitors,  mother 
and  Emma,  who  are  always  ready  to  add  theory  to 
practice  when  I  am  under  their  jurisdiction,  and  are 
always  ready  to  direct  and  restrain  my  boyish  pro 
pensity  to  slovenliness,  and  also  to  bring  me  into 
all  the  society  possible  while  I  am  with  them.  The 
former  is  here  now,  staying  with  Mrs.  Howe.  She 
thinks  I  had  better  follow  my  former  plan  of  going 
into  the  store  in  Boston  in  October,  if  they  will  take 
me  for  one  year,  that  I  may  see  something  of  the 
world  before  going  to  Canton,  and  perhaps  to  see 
something  of  society  and  to  correct  any  carelessness 
about  appearance  which  I  may  have  contracted  dur 
ing  my  residence  under  the  aristocratical  and  free- 
thinking  government  of  Kound  Hill.  I  have  read 
your  letter  to  Emma,  and  must  own  that  I  almost 
envy  you  the  pleasure  of  being  able  to  render  one 
so  dear  to  us  all  independent,  and  hope  most  sin 
cerely  that,  if  fortune  is  favorable  to  me,  it  may  be 
my  first  pleasure,  as  it  is  yours,  to  share  it  with  those 
I  love.  My  obligations  to  you  can  never  be  repaid, 
but  I  hope  to  show  you  at  least  by  my  conduct  that 
I  am  not  insensible  to  them.1  I  shall,  as  you  wish, 

1  This  refers  to  the  help  that  his  brother  Thomas  gave  towards 
his  education.  In  a  letter  dated  September  11,  1823,  addressed  to 
this  brother  in  Canton,  he  says :  "  Mother  intends  paying  half  my 
expenses  at  Northampton,  —  and  to  your  goodness  I  must  be  in 
debted  for  the  rest;  I  hope  to  repay  you  in  part  by  my  diligence  and 
good  conduct,  and  to  show  you  on  your  return  that  I  have  been  nei- 


SCHOOL  DAYS  51 

pay  a  good  deal  of  attention  to  my  French  and 
Spanish.  In  the  former  I  feel  quite  secure  and 
even  prepared  to  put  it  into  immediate  use ;  as  to 
the  latter,  I  have  not  nearly  so  general  knowledge 
either  in  reading,  writing,  or  speaking,  either  from 
not  having  so  good  a  teacher  or  from  an  idea  when 
I  began  of  its  not  being  of  so  much  consequence. 
For  this  deficiency  I  shall  endeavor  to  make  up  in 
the  time  I  have  left.  .  .  . 

Your  ever  affectionate  brother, 

J.  M.  F. 

JOSEPH    G.    COGSWELL    TO   MRS.    R.    B.    FORBES,    MILTON. 

NORTHAMPTON,  July  17,  1828. 

MY  DEAR  MADAM,  —  I  should  not  doubt  for  a 
moment  of  the  plan  to  be  pursued  with  John  if  Col 
onel  Perkins  could  give  him  a  place  in  his  compting 
room.  ...  I  consider  him  as  possessor  of  a  far  bet 
ter  education  than  nine  tenths  of  the  young  men 
who  have  received  degrees  at  our  colleges,  and  feel 
no  scruples  about  sending  him  out  on  the  great 
theatre  of  life,  either  as  to  principles  or  knowledge. 
In  both  respects  his  condition  is  entirely  satisfactory 
to  me,  and  I  hope  you  will  have  reason  to  accord 
with  me  in  opinion.  ...  It  is  not  mere  length  of- 
time  in  which  he  has  been  my  pupil,  that  attaches 
me  strongly  to  him ;  a  stronger  tie  is  the  uncommon 
worth  and  irreproachable  character  he  has  main 
tained  in  this  relation.  .  .  . 

ther  idle  nor  ungrateful  for  the  high  privilege  you  have  afforded  me 
on  this  occasion." 


52  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

THE  SAME  TO  THE  SAME. 

[September  29, 1828.] 

.  .  .  .  "  Were  I  to  leave  off  my  calling  to-rnor- 
row  I  should  feel  that  I  had  not  engaged  in  it  in 
vain  to  have  aided  in  producing  even  one  so  ex 
cellent  a  character  as  your  son."  .  .  . 


CHAPTER  III 

FIRST   VENTURES 

MY  father's  Boston  counting-house  recollections 
refer  largely  to  traits  of  the  sea-captains  employed 
by  the  firm  and  of  others  connected  with  it.  These, 
however  interesting  to  those  whose  recollections 
stretch  as  far  back  as  the  beginning  of  the  century, 
can  hardly  appeal  to  more  modern  readers,  and  I 
have  therefore  confined  my  selections  to  memories 
of  his  own  life  :  — 

"  From  Round  Hill  school  I  went  almost  directly 
(October,  1828)  to  the  counting-room  of  my  uncles, 
Messrs.  J.  and  T.  H.  Perkins,  in  Boston.  My 
brother  Tom  was  either  head  clerk,  or  possibly 
junior  partner,  of  the  Canton  house,  under  J.  P. 
Cushing  (our  cousin),  who  had  been  some  twenty- 
five  years  in  China,  and  was  about  returning  home 
with  a  fortune. 

"The  Boston  house  was  at  this  time  — 1828, 
1829  —  occupying  two  large  stores,  Nos.  52  and  54, 
near  the  end  of  Central  Wharf  in  Boston,  in  front 
of  which  their  ships  engaged  in  the  China  trade 
discharged  and  received  cargoes. 

"  As  I  was  the  youngest  clerk,  my  duty  at  first 
consisted  largely  in  sweeping  the  store,  making  the 


54  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

fire,  closing  up  at  night,  and  taking  home  to  the 
active  partner  the  large  journal  or  book  which 
formed  the  basis  of  the  house's  accounts.  This, 
incased  in  a  green  baize  bag,  I  used  to  deposit,  with 
the  keys  of  the  store,  at  his  house  the  last  thing  at 
night,  going  for  them  the  first  thing  in  the  morn 
ing.  Later,  but  I  cannot  say  exactly  when,  my 
duties  were  lightened  by  having  an  old  retainer  of 
the  firm  installed  as  porter. 

"Mr.  Samuel  Cabot  was  the  active  managing 
partner  of  the  firm  and  bore  the  brunt  of  the  work 
at  Central  Wharf. 

"  My  immediate  superiors  were  my  cousin,  J.  H. 
Perkins,  a  year  or  two  my  senior,  and  J.  T.  Hay- 
ward,  the  head  bookkeeper.  They  were  on  the 
whole  kind  and  considerate  to  the  awkward  boy 
they  were  doomed  to  lead  in  the  ways  of  mammon, 
admitting  me  to  more  of  companionship  than  I  had 
any  right  to  expect. 

"  It  may  be  heterodox  and  a  bad  example,  but  I 
cannot  refrain  from  recording  one  sketch  which 
still  lingers  of  the  three  parties  last  referred  to.  It 
was  customary  when  discharging  our  ships  to  stow 
away  in  the  lofts  any  wines  or  liquors  which  were 
left  from  their  stores,  and  on  very  rare  occasions 
my  seniors  used  to  test  the  goodness  of  these  rem 
nants  from  an  East  India  voyage.  On  one  stormy 
afternoon,  when  the  blustering  snow  seemed  to 
insure  Mr.  Cabot's  absence,  I  had  been  sent  up  for 
a  bottle  of  whiskey,  —  the  sugar  was  also  always 
saved, — and  the  tin  pot  used  for  testing  tea  was  well 


FIRST  VENTURES  55 

filled  with  water  and  on  the  office  fire,  just  begin 
ning  to  warm,  when  a  hurried  step  on  the  stairs  and 
a  stamping  of  snowy  feet  outside  the  office  door 
announced  Mr.  Cabot !  With  presence  of  mind 
worthy  of  a  better  cause,  James  P.  seized  the  blower 
and  adroitly  hid  the  teapot,  just  as  his  superior 
entered  and  seated  himself  at  his  desk  to  write  one 
of  those  interminable  letters  to  China  which  we  all 
dreaded.  Hayward,  on  his  high  stool,  worked  away 
at  his  books,  while  the  two  junior  sinners  watched 
with  trembling  the  issue.  For  minutes,  which 
seemed  hours,  Mr.  Cabot  worked  away  at  his  desk, 
the  fire  roaring  in  the  chimney  and  the  air  getting 
more  and  more  heated,  until  at  last  he  pushed  back 
his  chair,  exclaiming,  '  What  on  earth  have  you  got 
such  a  fire  for ;  take  off  that  blower  ! '  Jim  ran  to 
the  blower,  now  red  hot,  and  with  the  tongs  man 
aged  to  extract  it  from  its  place,  and  to  our  great 
relief  the  tin  pot,  water  and  all,  had  disappeared, 
no  doubt  shriveled  up  by  that  fiery  blast,  and  the 
dreaded  explanation,  or  explosion,  was  no  longer  to 
be  feared. 

"  My  boarding  place  was  with  Mrs.  Mellus,  first 
in  Otis  Place,  and  afterwards  in  Hamilton  Place, 
next  the  alley  which  still  leads  down  to  Winter 
Street.  At  Otis  Place  I  now  only  remember  one 
fellow-boarder,  the  once  celebrated  beauty  of  Bos 
ton,  Miss  Mattie  Hatch.  She  was  then  a  very  well 
preserved  but  somewhat  portly  lady  of  about  sixty, 
well-mannered,  kindly  and  gracious  to  all  about 
her,  but  to  my  young  eyes  retaining  little  trace  of 


56  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

the  beauty  or  charms  which  had  made  her  cele 
brated. 

"  A  boy  of  sixteen  does  not  see  much  of  society, 
but  besides  my  relatives,  the  Perkinses  and  Cabots, 
I  remember  the  welcome  I  always  received  at  Mr. 
William  Sturgis's  in  Summer  Street,  and  at  a  few 
other  houses. 

"  My  Sundays,  with  part  of  Saturday  afternoon, 
always  found  me  at  Milton,  and  as  my  mother  had 
received  from  my  cousin,  Mr.  Cabot,  a  present  of 
a  horse,  I  think  named  Charlie  Hardscrabble,  and 
had  set  up  a  carry-all,  it  was  my  practice  to  start  at 
a  certain  hour  on  foot  out  over  the  South  Boston 
turnpike,  and  about  half  way  out  to  meet  my  sister 
Emma  with  the  carry-all.  In  those  days  Dunmore's 
stage  left  Milton  Mills  every  morning  at  about 
eight,  returning  in  the  afternoon,  and  was  the  only 
public  conveyance  between  Boston  and  Milton. 
Our  letters  were  often  carried  back  and  forth  by 
Mr.  Beal,  the  milkman." 

The  first  of  the  letters  which  follow  was  written 
directly  after  my  father  entered  the  Perkins  count 
ing-house.  The  second  could  scarcely  have  been 
read  by  his  brother,  as  he  was  drowned  off  Macao 
only  seven  weeks  after  its  date  :  — 

J.  M.  FORBES  TO  THOMAS  T.  FORBES. 

MILTON,  October  12,  1828. 

DEAR  BROTHER,  —  I  have  at  last  taken  leave  of 
Northampton  for  good.  I  was  sorry  of  course  to 
part  with  Mr.  Cogswell,  for  his  treatment  of  me  has 


FIRST  VENTURES  57 

been  uniformly  kind  and  friendly.  He  says  he 
thinks  me  prepared  for  the  duties  of  an  active  life, 
and  that  I  should  derive  more  benefit  from  being  in 
the  store  than  from  being  any  longer  with  him.  I 
only  want  about  four  months  of  the  age  you  men 
tioned  and  hope  that  you  will  be  satisfied  with  my 
being  in  the  store  till  shipped  for  Canton,  to  which 
event  I  look  forward  as  the  time  at  which  I  should 
commence  my  duties  to  you,  and  perhaps  to  mother, 
in  a  more  efficient  manner  than  heretofore.  Mother 
is  trying  to  procure  a  boarding  place  for  me  in  some 
French  family  ;  if  she  cannot  I  shall  take  lessons  in 
French  and  Spanish  in  the  evenings,  by  Mr.  Cogs 
well's  recommendation.  By  his  advice  I  shall  also 
read  history  and  travels  in  my  leisure  time.  En 
passant,  a  book  has  been  lately  translated  from  the 
French  of  Malte-Brun  styled  "Universal  Geogra 
phy,"  in  five  large  volumes.  .  .  .  Should  you  not 
like  to  have  me  get  it  and  send  it  out  to  you  ?  I 
have  studied  the  part  relating  to  Hindostan  and  the 
Oceanica,  as  he  calls  all  those  islands,  and  think  it 
as  entertaining  as  any  travels.  I  have  of  course 
seen  Mr.  Cushing  and  liked  him  better  than  I  ex 
pected,  for  you  know  that  we  have  always  looked 
upon  him  as  many  degrees  higher  than  the  pope  in 
all  his  glory,  and  I  expected  to  feel  a  proportionate 
degree  of  awe  in  his  presence.  I  think  he  has  the 
faculty  of  making  one  feel  easy,  his  manners  are  so 
calm  and  unostentatious.  .  .  .  Mother  looks  upon 
him  as  the  only  unexceptional  object  (except  per 
haps  aunt  Abbott)  in  this  wide  world  of  sin.  .  .  . 


58  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

I  feel  the  sooner  I  go  to  Canton  the  sooner  I  can 
come  back,  and  that  perhaps  my  going  may  have 
some  influence  on  your  return. 

Your  ever  affectionate  brother, 

J.  M.  F. 

MILTON,  May  30, 1829,  Sunday. 

MY  DEAR  BROTHER,  —  I  wrote  you  a  short  letter 
yesterday  in  case  the  Canton  Packet  should  go  off 
"  &  la  Franqaise"  though  it  is  not  probable  she  will 
go  before  Tuesday.  To-morrow  is  the  "  Election  " 
day,  and  I  shall  stay  out  of  town.  It  is  the  first 
holiday  I  have  had  since  I  have  been  in  the  store, 
and  it  seems  as  if  I  were  going  to  stay  here  a  week. 
.  .  .  We  have  not  had  much  pressing  business  at 
the  store  this  winter,  though  you  know  there  is 
always  employment  in  making  copies  of  invoices, 
etc.  If  I  should  stay  another  six  months,  however, 
I  shall  have  much  more  work.  As  yet  I  have  had 
but  little  to  do  with  China  cargoes  except  the  Par 
thian,  which  gave  me  a  pretty  good  dip  into  the  art 
of  stowing  teas,  as  I  had  the  whole  management  of 
hers.  .  .  .  Your  part  came  out  in  excellent  order,  a 
few  chests  of  Souchong  only  being  damaged.  I 
should  think  they  would  sell  pretty  well  from  what 
I  hear,  though  if  you  believe  Mr.  Cabot,  the  times 
are  so  bad  that  it  is  better  to  make  a  bad  than  a 
good  bargain,  from  the  greater  security  of  getting 
paid.  Mr.  Cabot  talks  a  great  deal  about  giving 
up  trade  and  winding  up  the  concern.  James  Per 
kins  says  he  means  to  wind  up  the  concern  as  he 


FIRST  VENTURES  59 

would  a  clock,  "  to  make  it  go  the  longer."  ...  I 
make  out  to  keep  on  the  fair-weather  side  of  the 
colonel  by  always  knowing  how  many  brigs  and 
ships  are  coming  up,  and  which  way  the  wind  is. 
...  I  have  been  expecting  by  every  vessel  to  hear 
something  of  your  plans  in  regard  to  me,  but  I  do 
not  now  hope  to  have  anything  before  the  Bashaw 
appears.  ...  If  she  does  not  come  here  I  shall 
expect  orders  to  go  by  first  ship  direct,  which  will 
probably  be  Bryant  &  Sturgis's  new  ship,  to  sail 
by  the  last  of  June.  If  the  Bashaw  comes,  it  is  said 
she  will  go  off  without  landing  any  of  her  cargo, 
which  consummation  I  hope  you  will  have  pre 
vented  by  partly  loading  her  with  goods  salable 
here,  perhaps  half  a  cargo  of  cheap  teas  for  Sep 
tember,  and  some  manila  grass  which  I  should  cal 
culate  will  go  off  then.  .  .  The  Smith  place 1  has,  I 
suppose  you  know,  been  sold.  Mother  is  much  dis 
appointed  at  Mr.  Gushing  not  getting  it,  and  hopes 
to  see  it  in  your  hands  at  some  future  day.  Wish 
ing  with  all  my  heart  and  soul  and  body  that  the 
aforesaid  hope  may  be  accomplished,  .  .  .  the  great 
Bashaw  prosper,  and  teas  rise  in  these  United  States, 
I  remain  your  affectionate  brother, 

J.  M.  FORBES.     t 

I  now  return  to  my  father's  recollections  of  the 
last  part  of  his  work  in  the  Boston  counting-house, 
and  of  his  start  for  China :  — 

1  Now  known  as  the  Russell  Place, — the  old  estate  of  Governor 
Hutchinson  on  Milton  Hill. 


60  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

"  Some  time  in  February,  1830,  the  quiet  and 
peace  of  my  routine  life  was  sadly  interrupted  by 
the  news  of  the  tragic  death  of  my  brother  Tom 
in  a  typhoon  near  Macao,  on  the  10th  of  August, 
1829,  over  five  months  previous.  I  remember  car 
rying  up  the  letters  to  Mr.  Cabot's  house  without 
suspecting  their  contents.  What  marked  the  event 
more  conspicuously  was,  that  the  night  before  I  had 
been  at  a  very  gay  party.  It  was  one  of  the  bright 
est  evenings  of  my  life,  its  tints  perhaps  colored  by 
the  cloud  which  so  soon  followed  it. 

"  I  was  too  young  to  know  my  brother  Tom  well, 
but  everybody  who  did  know  him  agreed  in  believ 
ing  that  in  this  last  great  crisis  he  had  sacrificed  his 
own  safety  in  the  hope  of  saving  his  friend,  who  was 
on  his  way  with  him,  in  a  little  schooner  from  Macao 
to  Canton,  to  meet  one  of  Perkins  &  Co.'s  ships. 

"  Another  incident  will  further  indicate  his  char 
acter.  Our  father  had  been  unlucky  in  business 
and  failed,  owing  various  parties  money.  As  soon 
as  my  brother  Tom  had  become  prosperous  his  first 
duty  had  been  to  make  his  mother  comfortable. 
His  next  was  the  pleasure  of  looking  up  his  father's 
creditors  and  repaying,  perhaps  to  all,  but  certainly 
to  those  who  most  needed  the  money,  his  father's 
debts,  although  of  course  there  was  not  even  the 
most  remote  legal  obligation  upon  him  to  do  so. 

"  From  the  time  when  we  heard  of  my  brother 
Tom's  death  I  was  in  constant  preparation  for  my 
voyage  to  China  in  the  Lintin,  commanded  by  my 
brother  Bennet,  during  the  coming  summer. 


FIRST  VENTURES  61 

"My  brother  Tom's  death  proved  the  turning- 
point  in  the  affairs  of  Perkins  &  Co.,  for  it  left 
them  not  only  without  a  partner  in  China,  but  also 
without  any  person  who  had  been  in  training  for 
such  a  position.1 

"  I  remember  the  parting  from  home,  saddened 
by  the  blow  which  Tom's  death  had  inflicted  on  all 
our  circle.  I  fancy  that  no  boy  ever  left  his  native 
land  with  less  enthusiasm  or  love  of  adventure  than 
I  did. 

"  The  Lintin  sailed  on  the  7th  of  July,  1830,  my 
brother  taking  me  as  a  passenger,  and  also  Au 
gustine  Heard,  who  was  engaged  to  take  charge  of 
the  house  of  Russell  &  Co.,  in  Canton.  We  also 
had  with  us  a  young  physician,  Dr.  John  Jennison, 
of  Northampton,  who  went  out  to  seek  his  fortune 
in  China,  and  I  think  worked  his  passage  as  ship's 
surgeon. 

"  Our  voyage  to  China  was  entirely  without  event. 
We  anchored  at  Lintin  about  the  middle  of  Novem 
ber,  1830,  and  went  on  the  same  night  with  our 
letter  bag  for  Canton,  seventy  miles  distant.  My 
first  impression  of  China  was  our  passing  in  the 
dusk  the  splendid  fleet  of  the  English  East  India 
Company  anchored  at  Whampoa,  ten  miles  below 
Canton,  some  fifteen  or  twenty  ships  of  the  size  and 
appearance  of  our  large  frigates,  well  armed  and 

1  I  find  that  Mr.  Gushing,  who  was  in  Europe  at  the  time,  went 
by  overland  route  at  once  to  Canton,  to  look  after  the  affairs  of 
Perkins  &  Co.  there,  and  merged  their  business  in  that  of  Russell  & 
Co.  before  the  arrival  in  China  of  my  father  and  my  uncle  Bennet. 
-ED. 


62  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

manned ;  in  f act,  perfectly  able  (as  they  had  proved 
themselves)  to  beat  off  a  powerful  French  squadron. 

"  My  boyhood  period  ended  sharply  when  I  ar 
rived  in  China,  and  was,  by  an  arrangement  made 
by  Mr.  J.  P.  Gushing,  at  once  put  into  the  office 
of  Eussell  &  Co.  as  their  youngest  clerk,  but  with 
a  private  understanding,  *not  communicated  to  me 
until  I  reached  China  on  my  return  in  August, 
1834,  that  if  I  proved  competent  I  should  be  ad 
mitted  to  the  firm  on  the  1st  of  January  of  that 
year.  My  salary  was  not  large,  but  my  quarters 
and  position  were  good,  as  my  fellow  passenger,  Mr. 
Heard,  became  the  active  manager  of  Russell  &  Co., 
and  was  very  kind  and  indulgent  to  me.  Before 
Mr.  Gushing  left  (about  the  new  year)  he  intro 
duced  me  to  his  old  friend  Houqua,  the  chief  of  the 
Hong,1  or  company,  which  then  managed  all  the 
foreign  trade  of  China,  and  recommended  me  to  his 
confidence. 

"  Houqua,  who  never  did  anything  by  halves,  at 
once  took  me  as  Mr.  Gushing' s  successor,  and  that 
of  my  brother  Tom,  who  had  been  his  intimate 
friend,  and  gave  me  his  entire  confidence.  All  his 
foreign  letters,  some  of  which  were  of  almost  na 
tional  importance,  were  handed  me  to  read,  and  to 
prepare  such  answers  as  he  indicated,  which,  after 
being  read  to  him,  were  usually  signed  and  sent 

1  A  Hong  was  technically  a  collection  of  business  offices.  The 
Russell  &  Co.  Hong,  or  the  "  Swede "  Hong,  as  it  was  called, 
consisted  of  five  houses,  one  fronting  the  square,  the  rest  behind, 
communicating  by  a  sort  of  street,  with  verandas  looking  down. 
—  ED. 


FIRST  VENTURES  63 

without  alteration.  It  was  his  habit  when  he  could 
not  sell  his  tea  or  silks  at  satisfactory  prices  to 
ship  them  to  Europe  or  America,  and  before  I  was 
eighteen  years  old  it  was  not  uncommon  for  him 
to  order  me  to  charter  one  or  more  entire  ships  at  a 
time,  and  load  them.  The  invoices  were  made  out 
in  my  name,  and  the  instructions  as  to  sales  and 
returns  given  just  as  if  the  shipments  were  my  own 
property,  and  at  one  time  I  had  as  much  as  half  a 
million  dollars  thus  afloat,  bringing  me  into  very 
close  correspondence  with  Baring  Bros.  &  Co.,  and 
other  great  houses. 

"Besides  doing  my  work  for  Houqua,  I  had 
plenty  to  occupy  me  at  the  office,  and  as  I  had 
from  various  causes  the  appearance  of  being  much 
older  than  I  really  was,  I  soon  found  myself  play 
ing  a  man's  part.  Kussell  &  Co.'s  business,  swelled 
by  that  of  Perkins  &  Co.,  was  very  large,  and  Mr. 
Heard,  though  untiring  in  his  industry,  was  by  no 
means  rapid  in  his  methods,  so  that  a  great  deal 
came  upon  my  shoulders.  Old  captains  and  super 
cargoes  were  often  turned  over  to  me  for  consulta 
tion  without  any  suspicion  of  my  inexperience,  and 
as  some  of  them  were  foreigners  my  French  and 
Spanish  lessons  proved  useful. 

"  In  these  days  of  steam  and  telegraph  it  is  dif 
ficult  to  conceive  of  the  state  of  isolation  in  which 
we  lived.  When  a  ship  arrived  she  often  brought 
news  five  or  six  months  old  from  home,  but  as  the 
success  of  her  voyage  depended  upon  keeping  pri 
vate  all  intimations  about  the  market  which  she  had 


64  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

left  behind,  not  a  letter  or  newspaper  was  ever  de 
livered  until  she  had  bought  her  cargo,  very  often 
not  until  she  lifted  her  anchor  to  go  off." 

Though  my  father  seems  to  have  recognized  the 
necessity  for  this  rule  with  regard  to  letters,  I  find 
from  one  of  his,  dated  Canton,  July  28,  1831,  to 
Mr.  J.  T.  Hay  ward  (bookkeeper  in  the  Perkins 
house  at  Boston,  who  appears  to  have  taken  care 
there  of  his  "  adventures  "),  that  he  could  not  help 
feeling  indignant  at  the  retention  for  some  weeks, 
by  one  of  the  captains,  of  private  letters  to  himself 
and  his  brother  Bennet,  which  must  have  contained 
news  of  three  and  a  half  months  later  date  than 
that  of  their  last  advices. 

My  father's  work  in  Russell  &  Co.'s  office  was 
very  hard,  for  Mr.  Heard  was  single-handed;  but 
he  had  time  for  occasional  sailing  and  rowing  on 
the  Canton  River  and  trips  to  his  cousin,  Mr.  James 
P.  Sturgis,  at  Macao,  and  to  his  brother  Bennet, 
who  was  making  a  great  success  of  his  receiving 
ship,  the  Lintin,  at  the  port  of  the  same  name. 

Partners  and  clerks  in  Canton  lived  all  together 

o 

on  terms  of  social  equality,  but  there  was  not  much 
outside  sociability,  nor  was  there  any  marked  inci 
dent  affecting  my  father's  life.  I  must  give  short 
space  to  the  rest  of  his  first  stay  in  China.  As  to 
his  Chinese  experience  up  to  this  date,  he  writes  in 
1884:  — 

"What  with  hard  work,  tempered  by  boating 
and  an  occasional  run  down  to  Lintin  or  Macao,  I 
managed  to  pass  three  years  in  China,  and  then,  at 


FIRST  VENTURES  65 

the  age  of  twenty,  the  work  or  the  climate  proved 
too  much  for  me,  and  I  was  ordered  home  to  re 
cruit. 

"  I  took  passage  in  the  ship  Alert,  Captain  J.  W. 
Sever,  the  same  ship  which  R.  H.  Dana  immortal 
ized  by  his  admirable  book,  '  Two  Years  Before  the 
Mast.'  We  reached  home  about  the  6th  day  of 
June,  1833,  and  I  think  I  carried  the  first  news  of 
my  coming,  it  being  considered  best  not  to  awaken 
the  anxiety  of  my  mother  by  announcing  my  inten 
tion." 

He  found  all  well  at  home,  and  then  followed  what 
was  most  natural.  He  writes  of  the  coming  engage 
ment  of  his  brother  Bennet,  who  had  preceded  him 
from  China,  and  adds,  referring  to  himself :  — 

"  It  was  hardly  to  be  expected  that  a  successful 
young  man  who  had  been  debarred  all  ladies'  so 
ciety  for  three  years  should  escape  the  contagion. 
I  found  my  sister  Mary  had  grown  into  a  woman, 
and  was  expecting  a  visit  from  two  charming  young 
ladies  of  New  Bedford  who  had  been  schoolmates 
with  her  at  Miss  Elizabeth  Peabody's  school.  They 
were  twins,  and  so  much  alike  that  nobody  could 
tell  them  apart.  I  had  been  to  New  York  on  some 
business  and  expected  to  find  them  in  the  little  old 
house  on  my  return.  Accordingly  one  of  them, 
Miss  Mary  Hathaway,  appeared,  and  I  was  intro 
duced  and  much  charmed ;  but  she  soon  went  off 
and  in  came  her  sister,  differently  dressed,  but  so 
wonderfully  like  her  that  only  the  dress  saved  me 
from  making  mistakes.  This  lasted  a  few  hours, 


66  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

when  it  turned  out  that  Sarah  had  been  prevented 
from  coming  and  that  Mary  had  been  masquerading 
in  her  place  by  a  change  of  dress.  She  completely 
took  me  in,  but  I  don't  think  had  the  laugh  on 
me  for  any  bad  blunders.  It  was  some  time  in  the 
summer  of  1833  that  Mary  Hathaway  was  married 
to  Robert  Watson,  at  New  Bedford,  where  I  was 
one  of  the  wedding  guests  and  first  saw  Sarah 
Hathaway  in  her  own  person.  .  .  .  Later  that  sea 
son  I  made  a  memorable  journey  to  New  York  with 
my  sisters  Emma  and  Mary,  they  stopping  with 
Aunt  Fanny  Forbes.  We  went  and  called  on  Sarah 
Hathaway,  then  taking  care  of  her  sister,  Mrs. 
Lydia  Anthony,  at  Brooklyn,  who  was  quite  ill. 
We  persuaded  her  to  join  us  in  a  theatrical  party, 
I  think  to  see  Fanny  Kemble.  During  the  play  we 
encountered  a  party  of  New  Bedford  friends,  whom 
I  overheard  telling  her  they  were  going  to  New 
Bedford  by  the  Providence  steamer  next  morning 
at  eight ;  and  as  she  had  been  waiting  for  an  escort 
for  some  time  she  said  she  would  avail  herself  of 
theirs.  I  listened,  but  said  nothing  until  later  in 
the  evening,  when  I  let  out  that  business  called  me 
back  to  Boston.  Had  it  been  a  voyage  to  Europe 
for  next  day,  I  think  the  business  would  have  been 
there.  So  early  next  day  I  left  my  sisters  (much, 
I  fear,  to  their  disgust)  on  their  aunt's  hands, 
and  appeared  at  the  Providence  steamer !  It  was  a 
very  pleasant  voyage  to  me,  however,  and  somehow 
resulted  in  an  invitation  to  Governor  Swain's,  at 
Naushon.  .  .  .  My  next  reminiscence  is  of  starting 


FIRST  VENTURES  67 

on  "  The  Judge/'  in  the  saddle,  the  night  before 
Thanksgiving  of  1833,  sleeping  at  the  Middle- 
borough  Pond  Hotel,  and  riding  into  New  Bedford, 
before  breakfast,  on  Thanksgiving  Day,  but  I  was 
then  engaged,  and  in  high  feather." 

And  so  within  eight  months  of  landing  he  was 
very  quietly  married  to  Miss  Sarah  Hathaway  at  the 
house  of  her  uncle,  William  Swain,  of  New  Bed 
ford.  Of  this  marriage  I  can  only  say  that  for 
sixty-four  years  the  good  deeds  of  the  husband  were 
more  than  seconded  by  the  wife ;  and  that  all  who 
partook  of  their  hospitalities,  either  at  Milton  or, 
later  on,  at  Naushon,  felt,  and  were  grateful  for,  the 
cheeriness,  buoyancy,  and  simple  mode  of  life  which 
had  been  brought  from  the  Quaker  city,  and  which 
gave  a  touch  of  something  informal  and  original  to 
all  that  was  done  for  others  in  the  home.  My 
father  refers  to  the  wedding  as  follows :  — 

"  When  it  came  to  the  point  we  found  that  one 
formality  had  been  omitted,  in  regard  to  publish 
ing  our  '  intentions/  or  as  it  was  then  called  '  the 
banns;'  which,  as  I  was  a  minor,  required  some 
further  certificate.  Our  regular  pastor  was  absent, 
and  we  had  to  get  a  Baptist  or  Methodist  clergy 
man,  the  Eeverend  Mr.  Chowles,  who  found  out  the 
slip  at  the  last  moment,  but  who  liberally  gave  out 
the  Dogberry-like  sentiment  that  the  law  was  in 
tended  for  law-breakers,  and  need  not  bind  such 
worthy  citizens  as  ourselves ;  and  so  he  took  the 
responsibility,  —  which  indeed  had  penalties  for  him 
if  for  anybody." 


68  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

My  father  continues  :  — 

"  Having  these  new  responsibilities,  I  now  had  to 
look  about  me  to  earn  a  living,  for  though  my 
China  business  had  been  reasonably  successful,  my 
salary  had  been  small  and  I  had  not  accumulated 
much  money." 


CHAPTER  IV 

LIFE    IN    CHINA 

BEFORE  my  father  had  been  a  month  married 
there  came  the  business  offer  of  which  the  follow 
ing  account  is  given  in  his  reminiscences :  — 

"  My  training  in  China  was  so  entirely  different 
from  anything  wanted  for  business  in  this  country 
that  when  Bryant  &  Sturgis  offered  me  the  chance 
to  go  supercargo  of  the  ship  Logan  which  they 
were  fitting  out,  and  the  prospect  of  another  ship 
(the  Tartar)  following  me,  I  could  hardly  avoid 
accepting  it,  cruel  as  it  seemed  to  leave  my  wife  so 
soon  after  marriage.  Canton  had  just  been  opened 
to  foreign  ladies,  but  it  was  very  unusual  for  any  to 
accompany  their  husbands,  and  besides  my  wife  was 
a  martyr  to  seasickness,  and  the  death  of  one  of  her 
sisters  had  been  attributed  to  a  sea  voyage ;  so  it 
seemed  impossible  to  take  her  with  me,  and  leaving 
her  in  my  mother's  family  at  Milton  I  reluctantly 
embarked  on  the  7th  of  March,  1834,  in  the  ship 
Logan,  Captain  Henry  Bancroft,  for  Gibraltar 
and  China.  I  took  with  me  as  clerk  Handasyd 
Cabot,  my  cousin  Mr.  Samuel  Cabot's  eldest  son, 
and  there  were  some  plans  half  formed  of  my  join 
ing  Perkins  &  Co.  on  my  return,  after  perhaps 


70  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

making  some  arrangements  in  China  for  their  busi 
ness;  but,  what  has  always  seemed  very  strange, 
Mr.  Gushing  allowed  me  to  embark  without  even 
having  given  me  the  slightest  intimation  of  the 
provisional  arrangement  which  he  had  made  for 
my  being  admitted  to  the  house  of  Russell  &  Co. 
in  China,  of  which  I  have  already  spoken." 

The  Logan  party  arrived  without  incident  at 
Gibraltar  on  March  28,  1834,  and  were  most  hos 
pitably  entertained  by  the  U.  S.  Consul,  Mr.  Hora 
tio  Sprague.  Here,  as  the  ship  took  about  three 
weeks  to  load  the  lead  which  she  was  to  take  to 
China,  my  father  went  through  the  usual  round  at 
"The  Rock,"  burnt  blue  lights  in  St.  Michael's 
cave,  saw  the  pretty  women  strolling  on  the  Ala- 
meda  to  hear  the  band  play,  followed  the  garrison 
fox  hounds,  was  taken  into  custody  for  attempting 
to  go  in  and  out  of  that  strictest  of  fortresses  with 
out  a  pass,  and  finally  took  the  regulation  trip  to 
the  cork  wood  convent,  where  he  was  kindly 
received  by  the  prior  and  his  company,  and  allowed 
to  contribute  some  dollars  towards  "  ransoming 
Christian  slaves  from  the  Moors." 

The  voyage  of  the  Logan  to  the  mouth  of  the 
Canton  River  was  without  excitement,  with  the  ex 
ception  of  the  occasional  catching  of  a  shark  and 
an  abortive  attempt  at  mutiny,  which  was  the  more 
exciting  because  "  a  great  lot  of  boxes  of  silver 
dollars  "  had  been  taken  on  board  at  Gibraltar  and 
stowed  under  the  captain's  cabin.  The  mutiny  was 
soon  quelled  and  three  of  the  mutineers  put  in  irons, 


LIFE  IN  CHINA  71 

but  released  within  a  few  days  on  the  handing  over 
by  each  of  them  of  some  cherished  possession  as 
security  for  good  behavior,  and  "  never  was  there 
a  more  quiet  crew  for  the  rest  of  the  voyage/'  he 
writes.  As  to  books  on  board  ship,  it  so  chances 
that  Miss  Edgeworth  is  the  only  author  to  whom 
reference  is  made  in  his  journal,  written  at  the  time, 
and  of  her  he  says  :  — 

"  May  23d.  I  have  been  reading  some  of  Miss 
Edgeworth's  books  lately;  I  didn't  like  them 
quite  so  well  as  I  used  to  —  there  is  too  much 
windiness,  her  characters  are  too  perfect,  her  plots 
hinge  upon  too  slight  and  improbable  contingencies ; 
then  there  is  always  some  grateful  Irishman,  or  old 
woman,  or  six  months  old  baby,  or  Jew  boy,  or 
beggar  who  comes  in  to  the  relief  of  the  hero  when 
he  is  in  a  strait.  Good  reputations  are  too  easily 
gained  and  lost ;  and  then  she  always  furnishes  her 
good  people  at  the  end  with  such  a  glorious  set-out. 
Estates  fall  from  the  wicked  to  go  to  them,  they 
have  lots  of  creature  comforts,  and  are  perfectly 
happy.  The  moral  is  good,  the  plot  bad;  for 
truly  the  wicked  are  not  always  punished  here, 
externally ;  nor  the  good  always  rewarded,  as  far  as 


we  can  see." 


On  arriving  at  Canton  early  in  August,  1834,  my 
father  found  Mr.  Heard  longing  to  get  away  on 
account  of  the  critical  state  of  his  health,  and  at 
odds  with  Mr.  Green,  the  partner  whom  he  had 
taken  into  the  firm  of  Russell  &  Co.  on  account  of 
its  overwhelming  increase  of  business.  He  also 


72  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

learned  for  the  first  time  that  he  himself  had  been 
a  partner  in  the  firm  since  the  first  of  the  preceding 
January,  so  that  his  share  in  the  profits  of  the 
house,  should  he  assent  to  the  arrangement,  must 
be  already  much  larger  than  all  he  could  make  as 
supercargo  of  the  Logan  and  Tartar.  Even  this 
would  not  have  decided  him,  "  but,"  as  he  wrote, 
"  Mr.  Heard  insisted  that  he  would  stay  till  he  died 
unless  I  would  take  his  place,"  and  so  "  I  took  some 
time  to  consider  the  case,  but  finally  decided  to  sign 
the  articles  and  go  to  work."  Mr.  Heard  left  in 
search  of  health  in  the  course  of  the  autumn,  and,  as 
Mr.  Coolidge,  the  only  other  partner  in  the  house, 
was  away  in  India,  the  whole  work  of  the  firm  de 
volved  on  Mr.  Green  and  my  father.  Houqua,  after 
some  demur,  consented  to  transfer  his  business  to 
Russell  &  Co.,  stipulating  only  that  my  father  should 
give  it  his  personal  attention.  On  the  3d  of  Febru 
ary,  1835,  Handasyd  Cabot  was  attacked  by  small 
pox,  and  nursed  by  my  father  and  Mr.  Francis  Hatha 
way,  my  mother's  cousin,  till  he  died,  early  in  the 
following  April.  As  to  one  of  the  dreary  distrac 
tions  during  his  cousin's  illness,  my  father  writes  in 
his  journal :  — 

"  April  5,  1835.  Whenever  I  have  found  time 
lately  I  have  been  with  Hathaway  to  a  walk  whichj 
we  have  discovered  on  the  other  side  of  the  river. 
We  land  there  at  five  in  a  sort  of  suburb,  saluted 
by  men,  women,  and  children  with  ( Hillo,  you 
foreign  devils  ! '  and  besides  by  beggars  for  cum- 
shas  (presents),  which  we  offer  with  our  canes. 


LIFE  IN  CHINA  73 

We  come  at  last  to  the  country,  which  is  composed 
of  barren  hillocks  covered  with  tombs,  and  between 
them  paddy  fields,  which  are  overflowed  at  high 
tides  —  the  same  round  day  after  day;  even  this 
dreary  walk  is  better  than  pacing  up  and  down  in 
front  of  the  factories." 

On  the  day  following  the  funeral  of  Handasyd 
Cabot,  Francis  Hathaway,  having  detained  his  ship 
Horatio  for  that  purpose,  took  my  father  with  him 
on  a  trip  to  Manila.  As  to  this  he  writes  :  — 

"  After  the  confinement  and  the  strain  under 
which  I  had  been,  the  voyage  in  a  fine  ship,  with 
good  company,  good  weather,  and  above  all  pure 
air,  was  simply  delightful,  and  I  was  soon  able  to 
enjoy  life  again." 

In  a  letter  to  one  of  his  family  in  Milton,  written 
on  board  ship  and  dated  May  8,  1835,  Lat.  17°  N., 
Long.  11°  E.,  he  says  of  his  Chinese  servant :  — 

"  Apee  is  my  valet  still.  I  take  him  to  Manila,  in 
the  hope  that  he  may  run  away  when  he  gets  there, 
or  if  not,  fall  overboard.  I  am  really  disgusted 
with  him,  he  is  such  a  clumsy  cooly  of  a  fellow, 
and  it  is  only  on  account  of  the  regard  which 
mother  has  for  him1  that  I  have  not  turned  him 
adrift  fifty  times.  He  cannot  get  a  plate  or  a  glass 
of  water  without  running  over  a  whole  room  and 
capsizing  two  or  three  boys  and  chairs." 

In  about  a  week  they  landed  at  Manila  and  were 
most  hospitably  received  by  Mr.  Sturgis.  They 

1  He  had  accompanied  my  father  to  Milton  on  his  first  return 
from  China.  —  ED. 


74  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

remained  there  two  or  three  weeks  and  made  an 
excursion  as  to  which  my  father  wrote :  — 

"  June  1,  1835.  Hathaway,  Wood,  and  I  got 
away  at  about  six  or  seven  A.  M.  in  a  carriage  for 
Santa  Anna,  where  we  embarked  in  a  canoe  long 
and  narrow,  two  feet  by  twenty-five;  after  two 
hours  of  quick  pulling  we  reached  the  mouth  of  the 
lake,  where  we  found  another  barca,  or  canoe,  a 
little  larger  than  the  first;  by  three  o'clock  we 
reached  Wood's  house  or  hut,  which  is,  like  the 
Indian  houses,  built  of  plain  wood,  stuck  upon 
posts  six  feet  in  the  air,  and  very  ordinary.  We 
proceeded  to  the  house  of  Don  Pablo,  the  owner  of 
all  that  district  and  also  the  head  of  the  police.  He 
received  us  well,  and  gave  H.  and  myself  quarters, 
and  after  supper  we  turned  in.  I  had  hardly  lain 
down,  when  I  heard  the  most  awful  noise,  women 
screeching,  with  cries  of  (  Ladrones  !  Ladrones ! ' 
(robbers)  mingled  with  prayers  to  the  Holy  Virgin. 
I  seized  my  dirk,  without  which  no  one  ever  sleeps 
in  this  country,  and  ran  into  the  hall,  where  all  the 
household  soon  appeared,  Don  Pablo  armed  to  the 
teeth.  I  was  frightened  to  death,  because  I  knew 
they  had  $2000  to  $3000  in  the  house,  and  that 
there  was  in  the  neighborhood  a  band  of  thirty 
robbers.  It  turned  out  that  the  servant  had  seen 
a  man  climbing  into  her  window,  who  had  retreated 
when  the  alarm  was  sounded.  Don  Pablo  caught 
him  the  next  morning,  and  found  that  he  had  for 
merly  been  a  servant  in  the  house,  and  had  climbed 
up  to  make  love  to  one  of  the  maids,  but  was  seen 


LIFE  IN  CHINA  75 

by  the  wrong  one.  He  was  dismissed  with  thirty 
lashes.  Don  Pablo's  dress,  when  he  sallied  out 
next  morning,  was  a  primitive  one  for  a  man  in  his 
station,  checked  shirt  and  pants,  kept  up  by  a  lea 
ther  belt,  which  also  supported  a  most  murderous 
knife,  made  to  cut  your  way  through  the  woods  or 
through  your  enemies,  as  may  be,  and  called  a 
( machete.'  .  .  .  We  spent  the  next  day  in  visit 
ing  Wood,  and  after  dining  at  twelve  started  at 
three  to  visit  the  mountains.  Hathaway  was 
mounted  on  a  one-eyed  creature  that  strongly  re 
minded  one  of  the  Naushon  horses,  while  I  had  an 
animal  that  could  only  be  got  into  a  dog-trot  by 
severe  pummeling.  We  went  on  paths  that  seemed 
almost  impracticable  on  foot,  the  beasts  showing  a 
most  wonderful  sure-footedness.  Our  guide,  an 
Indian,  bare  to  the  waist  and  mounted  on  a  horse 
without  a  bridle,  led  the  way,  with  my  gun  and 
apparatus  —  for  which  arrangement  I  have  been 
sorely  laughed  at,  though  I  think  it  a  very  rational 
one  under  such  a  sun.  We  dragged  on  by  by-paths, 
zigzag  enough,  to  the  top  of  the  mountain,  and 
then  had  a  fine  view  of  the  lake  and  the  sea.  We 
undertook  to  return  by  a  new  path  ten  times  worse 
than  the  first,  had  to  dismount  and  lead  our  horses 
down  hills  and  over  gullies  that  would  have  puzzled 
a  goat,  and  after  getting  a  mile  and  seeing  two 
deer  we  had  to  return,  and  at  sunset  found  ourselves 
on  the  top  of  the  mountain,  completely  at  fault. 
I  proposed  leaving  the  horses  and  getting  home 
while  there  was  light,  but  after  some  trouble  the 


76  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

Indian  found  the  path,  and  we  got  home  at  seven, 
after  four  hours  of  severe  exertion  on  a  very  hot 
day.  Hathaway  was  desperately  done  up,  but  I, 
though  tired,  was  not  fatigued,  ^and  could  have 
walked  half  a  dozen  miles  farther.  We  were  both 
heartily  tired  of  the  lakes  (a  nasty  muddy  piece  of 
water  full  of  green  stagnant  weed  and  water  snakes, 
which  we  saw,  and  alligators  which  we  did  not  see). 
We  had  been  eaten  up  by  mosquitoes,  there  being 
no  curtains,  and  had  not  had  a  moment's  comfort 
since  we  left,  so  we  got  into  a  canoe  at  ten  p.  M., 
and  arrived  here  at  ten  of  the  following  A.  M.  I 
never  saw  Hathaway  so  completely  miserable ;  there 
was  no  place  to  shave  nor  to  bathe,  no  good  tea,  a 
thousand  risks  to  health  from  midnight  air  and 
midday  sun,  and  badly  cooked  dinners ;  and  all  on 
my  poor  head  for  leading  him  into  such  a  scrape. 
I  think  I  never  passed  three  days  of  such  constant 
and  disagreeable  exposure,  and  my  escaping  without 
even  a  headache  proves  that  my  constitution  is  of 
the  strongest  and  that  my  days  of  illness  are 
passed." 

In  Manila  my  father  bought  a  pony,  which  he 
called  Augustine  in  honor  of  Mr.  Heard,  and  took 
back  to  Canton.  For  some  time  afterwards  nothing 
worthy  of  notice  seems  to  have  occurred,  but  on 
23d  November,  1835,  I  find  him  writing  to  my 
mother  :  — 

"  Last  evening,  just  as  I  was  beginning  to  think 
of  writing  home  letters,  a  tremendous  row  com 
menced  ;  a  fire  had  broken  out  about  half  a  mile 


LIFE  IN  CHINA  77 

in  the  rear  of  the  factories ;  the  wind  was  blowing 
half  a  gale  towards  us.  There  has  been  no  rain  for 
many  weeks,  and  all  Canton  is  dry  as  tinder  and  as 
ready  to  take  fire.  We  had  about  $300,000  in  our 
treasury,  and  perhaps  $50,000  worth  of  goods  in 
the  house.  I  instantly  started  for  Houqua's,  and 
such  a  scene  as  the  narrow  streets  presented  you 
cannot  imagine.  Bands  of  armed  coolies  forcing 
their  way  along  with  continued  yells,  each  man 
having  his  master's  name  on  his  cap  and  on  his 
lantern,  and  I  suppose  on  his  tongue ;  and  the 
parties  keeping  close  together  and  running,  their 
numbers  varying  from  ten  to  fifty  in  a  party ;  the 
rest  of  the  street  filled  with  coolies  carrying  goods 
from  the  fire  on  their  shoulders,  and  having  in  one 
hand  a  lantern,  and  in  the  other  a  glittering  short 
sword  which  they  flourished  constantly,  vociferating 
loudly  all  the  while  to  clear  the  way.  Through 
this  dense  mass,  I  shouldered  my  way,  with  the  help 
of  my  cooly,  to  the  Hongs,  and  there  found  old 
Houqua  as  cool  as  if  nothing  was  the  matter,  sur 
rounded  by  his  men,  with  water  and  engines  ready 
for  the  worst.  He  said  there  was  no  danger,  but  I 
insisted  on  his  lending  me  a  large  cargo  boat,  which 
he  sent  opposite  the  factory.  I  then  got  home  as 
quickly  as  possible,  sent  for  Dumaresq  and  our 
other  captains,  made  them  write  orders  for  the 
ships'  boats  to  come  up  armed  to  protect  us  in  case 
of  need,  and  dispatched  an  express  with  their  let 
ters  to  Whampoa  (ten  miles  distant)  to  alarm  the 
fleet.  By  this  time  the  fire  had  spread  perhaps  one 


78  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

eighth  of  a  mile  in  width  and  was  rapidly  increas 
ing  ;  we  could  hear  the  cracking  of  every  house  as 
it  fell,  and  the  cinders  and  sparks  flew  over  us  in 
showers ;  the  whole  sky  was  lighted,  and  the  square 
in  front  nearly  as  light  as  in  the  daytime.  From 
the  top  of  Sturgis's  house  it  was  the  most  magnifi 
cent  sight  I  ever  witnessed,  such  a  mass  of  red 
flame,  with  a  falling  of  houses  and  yells  of  the 
Chinese,  which  made  such  a  din  as  Babel  never 
knew ;  but  it  was  no  time  to  indulge  in  admiration 
of  the  picturesque.  We  hired  as  many  men  as 
could  be  found,  and  went  to  work  packing  up  our 
books  and  papers ;  this  we  completed  before  eleven, 
and  I  then  ordered  supper  for  all  hands,  in  the 
full  persuasion  that  it  would  be  the  last  meal  we 
should  eat  in  our  house.  Our  specie  all  ready 
for  removal,  I  went  once  more  to  Houqua,  found 
him  still  up,  but  his  spirits  gone ;  he  now  advised 
shipping  everything  but  our  money,  which  he  said 
would  be  safer  in  the  vault  than  in  a  boat.  We 
returned  to  the  factory,  got  all  our  coolies  laden ; 
Dumaresq  in  the  boat,  armed  to  the  teeth  as  guard ; 
clerks  at  our  door  and  at  the  boat,  to  take  account ; 
and  were  about  starting,  when  the  fire  appeared  to 
abate.  We  waited  an  hour,  and  thinking  the  mat 
ter  nearly  settled  in  our  favor,  I  gave  my  boy 
orders  to  call  me  if  anything  new  happened,  and 
lay  down  in  hopes  of  getting  a  nap ;  this  must  have 
been  at  two.  I  had  not  closed  my  eyes  before  the 
clamor  was  renewed,  and  Green  and  Dumaresq  hur 
ried  into  my  room  to  say  all  was  lost  and  the  fire 


LIFE  IN  CHINA  79 

quite  close  to  the  factories  in  a  new  place.  We 
scampered  down,  harnessed  the  coolies,  and  had  got 
about  half  of  our  luggage  into  the  boats,  when  the 
new  flame  was  put  out  and  the  main  fire  seemed 
going  down.  I  again  stopped  sending  down  to 
the  boats,  placed  a  watch,  and  laid  down.  In  half 
an  hour  all  was  uproar  again  ;  we  had  to  set  to 
work  again,  and  fairly  cleared  everything  out,  and 
at  daylight  I  would  not  have  given  sixpence  for 
the  factories ;  the  wind  was  high,  the  engines  (?)  had 
reached  the  city  wall,  and  that  was  now  our  only 
protection  against  it ;  on  this  side  were  paltry 
wooden  houses  which,  packed  close  together,  ex 
tended  to  the  factories,  and  seemed  to  form  a  train 
for  the  fire  to  take ;  but  the  daylight  saved  us,  the 
streets  were  pulled  down  now  that  they  could  see 
the  whole  course  of  the  fire,  and  the  necessary  mea 
sures  to  stop  it  were  taken,  and  in  half  an  hour 
from  the  point  of  greatest  danger,  we  were  safe, 
just  as  the  boats  from  the  ships  arrived.  By  one 
p.  M.  we  had  our  house  to  rights  again,  gave  the 
sailors  a  jollification,  and  all  parties  were  well 
pleased  with  the  result  except  the  poor  devils  of 
Chinese.  The  number  of  houses  is  estimated  at 
from  2000  to  3000  destroyed ;  put  it  at  1000,  and 
you  have  10,000  houseless  heads  ;  many  shops  were 
burned,  and  as  there  is  no  insurance,  hundreds  of 
men  who  were  last  night  prosperous  have  now  only 
the  labor  of  their  hands  to  look  to  for  support,  in 
a  country  where  the  hardest  labor  of  strong  men 
barely  earns  food  and  clothes  enough  to  sustain 


80  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

life.  This  fire  has  leveled  half  a  mile  square  of  a 
populous  city.  Houqua  told  me  he  had  men  ready 
to  pull  down  the  street  which  lined  the  western  wall 
of  the  city,  and  that  he  had  promised  the  occupants, 
if  he  was  obliged  to  do  it,  to  build  their  houses  new 
at  his  own  expense.  The  authorities  seem  subdued 
from  their  usual  insolence  by  this  awful  calamity, 
and  have  not  opposed  the  entrance  of  foreigners  into 
the  usually  sacred  walls  of  the  city.  I  went  this 
p.  M.  with  Hathaway,  mounted  the  wall,  and  walked 
on  the  top  of  it  for  half  a  mile,  during  which  we 
met  with  civility,  for  the  first  time  in  all  my  resi 
dence  in  China ;  or  rather,  we  did  not  meet  with  a 
single  insult  —  a  miracle.  We  descended  from  the 
wall,  which  is  perhaps  ten  feet  thick  and  eighteen 
feet  high,  by  steps  which  led  into  the  midst  of  the 
ruins,  which  were  blazing  close  to  the  wall ;  we 
were  trying  to  penetrate  over  the  rubbish  into  the 
interior  of  the  city,  when  a  petty  mandarin  turned 
us  back  civilly  and  without  insult. 

"  I  have  been  so  constantly  on  the  move  that  my 
feet  are  as  sore  as  if  I  had  been  on  a  long  journey, 
and  my  eyes  swelled  and  bloodshot,  from  ashes  and 
want  of  sleep.  Do  not  mention  my  name  in  con 
nection  with  Houqua' s ;  it  would  seem  ostentatious 
to  speak  of  my  intimacy  with  the  old  hero,  and 
though  it  might  give  me  notoriety,  I  don't  care  to 
shine  with  borrowed  light ;  I  shall  be  content  with 
what  share  of  respect  I  can  command  for  myself." 

Bearing  in  mind  how  large  a  part  of  my  father's 


LIFE  IN  CHINA  81 

work  in  after  life  was  devoted  to  railroads,  and  how 
successful  he  became  in  their  management,  it  seems 
the  irony  of  fate  to  find  that  his  first  feeling  to 
wards  them  was  one  of  distrust  and  dislike.  His 
brother  Bennet  had  written  from  Boston  suggesting 
the  investment  in  railroads  of  some  funds  of  my 
father's  of  which  he  had  charge  there.  To  this 
suggestion  my  father  replied :  — 

CANTON,  January  9, 1836. 

MY  DEAR  BENNET,  —  The  principal  object  of  the 
present  is  to  request  that  you  will  by  no  means 
invest  any  funds  of  mine  in  railway  stocks,  and  to 
advise  you  to  keep  clear  of  them.  I  have  good 
reasons  to  believe,  from  all  I  can  learn  of  the  Eng 
lish  railways,  that  ours  will  prove  a  failure  after  the 
first  few  years ;  the  wear  and  tear  proves  ruinous. 
At  any  rate,  keep  clear  of  them.  Three  ships  going 
this  week.  I  am  very  well,  and  quite  busy. 
Ever  yours  most  affectionately, 

J.  M.  FORBES. 

Towards  the  end  of  this  his  second  and  last  resi 
dence  in  China  my  father  spent  some  time  in  Macao 
in  a  house  taken  by  himself  and  Francis  Hatha 
way  ;  but  as  this  was  a  small  one,  Dr.  and  Mrs. 
Colledge,  friends  whom  he  had  made  there,  lent 
him  their  house  for  a  farewell  fancy  ball  which  he 
proposed  giving  in  acknowledgment  of  the  many 
hospitalities  he  had  received.  The  following  is  his 
account  of  it,  written  at  the  time :  — 


82  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

"  September  12th,  1836.  I  undertook  to  invite 
some  Portuguese,  and  have  made  a  mess  of  it ;  quar 
reled  with  half  the  town.  I  to-day  called  on  the 
governor ;  he  and  his  suite  will  come,  also  some 
English  army  officers.  I  have  eighty-four  on  my 
list  of  accepted.  I  am  to  have  a  green  satin  frock 
coat  ornamented  with  green  cording,  white  satin 
tights,  white  Spanish  boots,  a  hat  and  feather, 
simply  a  crown  hat  looped  up  on  one  side.  Both 
men  and  ladies  have  been  most  obliging  ;  one  looks 
after  the  decorations  of  the  house,  another  the  light 
ing,  etc.  .  .  . 

"  At  the  ball  the  first  who  entered  was  a  Turk  in 
full  costume,  looking  quite  a  character ;  then  a  Ger 
man  student,  then  a  lady  in  court  dress  ;  nearly  all 
the  gentlemen  in  coats,  which  I  at  once  asked  them 
to  change  for  white  jackets.  As  the  room  filled, 
the  effect  was  most  brilliant ;  several  ladies  came  as 
nuns,  as  Swiss  peasants,  Spanish  ladies,  etc.,  all 
very  much  dressed  and  ornamented.  I  soon  lost  all 
tremor,  and  entered  into  the  full  enjoyment  of  the 
thing.  One  man  came  dressed  as  a  woman,  and  I 
did  not  find  it  out  for  some  time.  Three  captains 
came  in  Moorish  and  Parsee  dresses ;  no  one  would 
have  detected  them,  unless  from  knowledge  of  their 
features  —  they  looked  and  acted  their  characters 
perfectly.  So  did  another  captain,  who  came  dressed 
as  a  '  good  old  English  country  gentleman.'  Pre 
sently  Alexander  Eobertson  entered,  in  full  Spanish 
costume,  brilliantly  ornamented,  and  in  attendance 
on  a  Spanish  lady  in  black  hat  and  feathers  and 


LIFE  IN  CHINA  83 

black  bodice  on  a  white  dress  (Mrs.  Stewart).  Then 
came  a  Jack  Tar  in  company  with  an  Englishman 
dressed  in  trousers  representing  the  stripes  and  a 
jacket  of  stars  intended  to  mean  the  Yankee  flag ; 
then  an  Arab,  a  Turk,  and  a  Greek.  All  seemed 
in  good  -  humor,  and  just  filled  the  rooms  enough. 
There  were  about  forty  plain  dresses,  and  thirty  or 
more  fancy  ones.  After  hot  coffee  we  began  dan 
cing.  The  lady  highest  in  point  of  rank  was  Mrs. 
Elliot,  wife  of  one  of  the  British  superintendents ; 
but  she  had  rather  discouraged  my  party,  and  came 
in  a  plain  dress,  so  I  led  out  Mrs.  Daniel  for  the 
first  dance ;  she  had  taken  a  strong  part  in  my 
favor,  and  indeed,  with  one  or  two  others,  had  fairly 
carried  the  thing  through.  She  was  dressed  fan 
cifully,  in  something  between  Swiss  and  Spanish, 
and  as  usual  looked  pretty.  At  twelve  we  supped 
at  small  tables  in  the  veranda.  I  led  in  Mrs.  Elliot. 
Captain  Elliott  got  up  in  a  chair,  and  made  a  long 
speech  about  me  and  my  party,  and  then  proposed 
my  health,  with  cheers,  which  seemed  much  out  of 
place  among  ladies.  In  due  time  I  got  up  and 
thanked  all  present  for  the  honor  they  had  done  me 
in  accepting  my  invitations,  etc.,  and  finally  pro 
posed  as  a  toast, '  The  bright  eyes  of  Macao.'  When 
supper  was  over  we  had  a  few  songs,  then  dancing 
and  waltzing  until  nearly  three  A.  M.  I  never  saw 
so  brilliant  a  party  anywhere,  not  even  at  the  gar 
rison  fancy  ball  at  Gibraltar.  It  could  not  have 
gone  better,  and  Inglis  (of  Dent  &  Co.)  is  already 
insisting  on  another  when  the  weather  gets  cooler. 


84:  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

"  16th.  Now  for  the  disagreeable  part  of  the  ball. 
It  is  very  likely  to  lead  to  some  ball  practice  of  an 
unpleasant  nature.  I  asked  a  Portuguese  gentle 
man  (Sr.  R )  to  name  to  me  a  few  Portuguese 

who  were  proper  persons  to  be  asked  if  I  chose ; 
well,  he  sent  me  a  list  of  twenty-three  people,  from 
which  I  crossed  off  three  garrison  officers  and  sent 
him  notes  for  the  rest,  informing  him  that  the 
gentlemen  outnumbered  the  ladies  already  very 
much,  and  that  I  had  therefore  omitted  a  few  of 
the  bachelors  on  his  list.  I  employed  his  clerk  to 
write  the  invitations,  and  he  sent  them  to  Captain 
Lonero,  with  the  list  containing  the  crossed-off 
ones.  The  crosses  were  laid  to  R.'s  account,  as  he 
does  not  speak  to  the  other.  My  navy  friend  and 
his  wife  immediately  sent  a  refusal,  and  none  of  the 
list  accepted.  The  morning  after  the  party,  I  found 
on  my  table  a  note  from  the  gentleman,  asking  an 
explanation  of  my  conduct,  and  since  then  I  have 
been  carrying  on  a  pistol  and  dagger  sort  of  cor 
respondence.  The  officers  are  vaporing  and  talk 
ing  of  satisfaction,  and  the  captain  writes  letters  of 
dangerous  consequences  if  I  refuse  to  give  up  R.'s 
name  as  accessory  to  the  crucifixion.  In  my  first 
letter,  I  made  all  the  concessions  and  apologies  that 
I  intended  to,  and  as  it  now  stands,  I  have  told  my 
peppery  friend  that  I  alone  am  responsible  for  my 
own  omissions  and  invitations.  I  am  staying  at 
home  now  in  momentary  expectation  of  a  visit  from 
some  of  the  garrison  officers.  This  is  not  very 
pleasant,  it  keeps  me  from  going  to  Canton.  I 


LIFE  IN  CHINA  85 

don't  think  it  will  come  to  anything  —  am  pretty 
much  decided  not  to  risk  my  life  against  any  of 
the  creatures.  I  shall  not  go  out,  unless  quite  con 
vinced  that  my  reputation  would  suffer  by  refus- 
ing." 

My  father  waited  all  day  for  his  not  forthcoming 
challenger,  and  then  returned  to  Canton  and  work, 
and  on  the  5th  of  the  following  November  I  find 
him  in  Macao  again,  and  writing :  — 

"  Yesterday  was  a  fine  bright  day,  and  with  De 
lano  I  started  for  the  Lappa,  a  hilly  island  half  a 
mile  from  Macao.  We  went  at  eleven,  walked 
about  a  couple  of  miles  to  the  top  of  a  high  hill, 
and  there  in  the  sun  and  breeze  upon  the  '  bonnie 
Highland  heather '  it  was  delicious ;  a  splendid 
view  on  all  sides,  and  then  the  wild  rugged  loneli 
ness  of  the  spot  surrounded  by  heath-covered  hills, 
so  different  from  Canton,  and  indeed  from  all  tropi 
cal  scenery.  I  could  easily  have  imagined  myself 
on  one  of  our  own  barren  hills,  for  there  were  no 
trees,  except  a  few  stunted  pines,  contrasting  well 
with  the  brown  grass.  We  gathered  some  wild- 
flowers,  and  some  running  evergreen  and  fern,  and 
heather  for  Mrs.  Sturgis,  and  had  some  good  runs 
over  the  hilltops,  and  drank  out  of  a  leaf  from  a 
pure  stream  of  clear  water,  and  then  laid  down  in 
the  sun  for  a  couple  of  hours." 

This  period  of  my  father's  life,  which  ended  in 
December,  1836,  embraced  that  of  the  giving  up 
by  the  East  India  Company  of  their  monopoly  of 
the  English  trade  with  China.  This  led  to  a  large 


86  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

influx  of  Englishmen,  to  the  forming  of  a  club,  the 
Union,  of  which  he  was  a  member,  and  much  socia 
bility  and  festivity  not  before  existing ;  under  the 
strain  of  which  British  official  reserve  seems  to  have 
broken  down  entirely,  as  appears  from  the  following 
extract : — 

"  Sometimes  we  raced  our  boats  on  the  way  to 
the  baseball  grounds,  then  played  leap-frog  along 
the  dikes  towards  the  upland.  In  out-of-door 
sports  the  Englishman  has  perforce  to  drop  his  in 
sular  dignity  and  become  democratic,  and  he  never 
does  it  by  halves.  Often  we  found  ourselves  hold 
ing,  or  jumping  over,  the  head  of  a  high  dignitary 
of  the  company's  service  in  India,  who,  when  at 
home,  held  power  of  life  and  death  over  thousands 
of  natives ;  and  perhaps  when  the  game  was  organ 
ized  for  ball  the  same  official  would  be  found  ( tend 
ing  out '  in  his  turn  or  getting  pelted  by  the  hard 
ball  as  he  tried  to  run  in,  for  it  was  then  the  fash 
ion  to  throw  at  the  runner,  and  if  hit  he  was  out  for 
that  inning.  I  think  we  had  no  quarrels,  and  that 
the  best  spirit  prevailed  between  the  American  and 
foreign  residents.  The  Laird  of  Innes  was  not,  I 
think,  a  member,  but  some  of  Jardine  &  Co.  were, 
and  the  whole  effect  of  the  club  was  civilizing." 

In  looking  back,  in  1884,  to  his  mercantile  ex 
perience  in  China,  my  father  speaks  of  the  strict 
honor  of  the  Chinese  merchant,  and  sums  up  with, 
"  I  never  saw  in  any  country  such  a  high  average 
of  fair  dealing  as  there."  When  his  agreed  term 
was  expiring,  though  it  was  at  the  busy  time  of  the 


LIFE  IN  CHINA  87 

year,  he  could  not  of  course  consent  to  stay  longer. 
He  writes :  — 

"  So,  after  making  arrangements  with  Mr.  Green 
for  a  moderate  share,  I  think  three  sixteenths,  of 
Russell  &  Co.'s  business  for  three  years  while  at 
tending  to  its  interests  in  the  United  States,  I  took 
passage  for  home  in  the  Luconia,  Captain  Charles 
Pearson.  .  .  .  The  afternoon  of  our  sailing  comes 
back  to  me,  with  my  sensations  as  I  paced  the  deck, 
just  as  clearly  as  if  it  were  yesterday,  and  I  recall 
the  very  tune  I  was  humming  —  nearly  sixty  years 
since ;  it  was  Moore's 

1  There 's  a  bower  of  roses  by  Bendemeer's  stream, 
And  the  nightingale  sings  round  it  all  the  day  long.'  " 

The  Luconia's  run  was  fast  (120  days),  and  with 
out  incident,  till  she  was  nearing  New  York,  when 
my  father  writes  in  his  journal :  — 

"  Four  days  since,  I  was  reading  in  the  cabin, 
when,  about  four  P.  M.,  I  heard  a  fall  on  deck; 
then  down  came  some  one  saying  a  man  had  fallen 
from  the  mast  and  was  killed.  I  went  up  to  see 
what  I  could  do,  being  less  flustered  than  the  rest. 
I  found  it  was  a  poor  boy,  the  favorite  of  all  on 
board.  My  old  friend  Brown  was  holding  him  in 
his  arms  and  trying  to  bring  him  to.  ...  The  boy 
was  the  son  of  a  country  physician,  and  being  in 
delicate  health,  a  sea  voyage  had  been  necessary 
after  he  had  prepared  for  college.  He  could  not 
afford  to  pay  for  his  passage,  and  had  shipped  as  a 
sailor  boy ;  he  had  been  ill  several  times,  and  when 


88  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

we  sailed  was  dangerously  so.  I  then  got  inter 
ested  for  him,  used  to  go  and  see  him  and  try  to 
keep  up  his  spirits,  and  when  he  was  well  enough 
to  read  lent  him  books.  He  got  well,  and  was  per 
fectly  recovered  and  grown  very  stout,  with  every 
prospect  of  being  home  in  a  week,  when  this  unac 
countable  accident  happened;  it  was  nearly  calm, 
and  he  was  in  the  mizzen  top,  where  any  lubber  can 
go  without  danger.  He  was  a  gentle,  kindly  boy, 
and  must  have  been  dearly  loved  at  home.  .  .  . 
Poor  fellow,  I  came  nearer  shedding  more  tears  for 
him  than  I  have  before  for  many  years.  I  was 
much  touched,  too,  to  find  that  his  clothes  were 
coarse  as  any  of  the  crew's,  and  that  he  had  spent 
his  little  earnings  in  buying  at  Canton  a  couple  of 
pair  of  velvet  slippers  and  a  box  of  gay  fans,  pre 
sents,  no  doubt,  for  his  father  and  mother.  .  .  . 
Four  o'clock  p.  M.  was  appointed  for  the  funeral ;  I 
dragged  myself  to  the  deck ;  the  sky  was  black, 
with  every  indication  of  an  approaching  gale  ;  the 
ship  was  plunging  swiftly  on  ;  every  blast  seemed 
louder  than  the  last.  The  crew  were  collected  at 
the  gangway.  The  body,  sewed  up  in  a  sheet,  with 
shot  at  the  feet  to  sink  it,  was  placed  on  a  board 
which  rested  on  the  gunwale,  and  covered  with  the 
American  flag.  Captain  Pearson  read  the  Church 
of  England  service  to  as  sober  a  set  of  men  as  I 

o 

ever  laid  eyes  on,  not  a  few  brushing  away  a  tear 
now  and  then.  At  the  sentence,  <  We  commit  his 
body  to  the  deep,'  the  flag  was  removed,  and  his 
messmates  raised  the  board  till  the  body  plunged 
into  the  sea,  and  we  sped  swiftly  on  our  way." 


LIFE  IN  CHINA  89 

A  few  days  later,  after  an  exasperating  interval 
of  contrary  winds,  my  father  landed  in  New  York 
(March,  1837),  and  as  to  what  followed  he  writes :  — 

"  The  Providence  steamer  was  then  the  only 
short  way  of  reaching  home,  and  the  next  forenoon 
found  me  snugly  harbored  at  my  aunt  James  Per 
kins's,  in  Pearl  Street,  where  my  wife,  perhaps  by 
accident,  met  me  after  an  absence  of  a  little  over 
three  years." 


CHAPTER  V 

TEN   YEAES   OF   BUSINESS 

DURING  the  latter  part  of  my  father's  stay  in 
China  my  uncle  Bennet  had  seen  to  building  for 
him  on  Milton  Hill  the  cottage  which,  with  some 
additions,  is  now  occupied  by  my  brother  Malcolm ; 
and  here  he  found  my  mother  already  established. 

My  father  had  left  China  in  December,  1836, 
when  no  warning  of  any  commercial  storm  had 
reached  Russell  &  Co.  He  did  not  anticipate  hav 
ing  more  to  do  than  to  attend  quietly  to  the 
interests  of  the  firm  in  the  United  States,  and 
expected  therefore  to  take  life  more  easily  than  had 
been  possible  for  him  in  Canton. 

But  this  was  not  to  be.  When  he  landed  in  New 
York,  in  March,  1837,  he  found  the  business  world 
in  wild  confusion.  The  three  great  banking-houses 
in  London,  Wiggins,  Wilson,  and  Wilde  (familiarly 
remembered  as  the  three  W's),  through  whom  the 
greater  part  of  the  Chinese- American  business  had 
been  done,  had  failed,  and  only  Baring  Bros,  and 
the  Browns  stood  firm.  He  found  that  Russell  & 
Co.  had  drawn  bills  for  over  £400,000  sterling  on 
the  three  broken  bankers,  and  that  these  bills  had 
at  once  to  be  provided  for ;  a  matter  simple  enough 


TEN  YEARS  OF  BUSINESS  01 

had  the  Chinese  goods  represented  by  the  bills,  and 
on  their  way  to  the  United  States  to  sundry  cor 
respondents  of  Russell  &  Co.,  continued  to  hold  the 
values  which  ruled  at  the  time  of  their  shipment ; 
but  these  had  fallen  during  the  panic  to  such  a 
point  as  to  make  it  impossible  for  weak  correspond 
ents,  and  impolitic  for  tricky  ones,  to  make  prompt 
remittances  to  London  to  take  up  the  dishonored 
bills.  One  of  these  latter  did  refuse  to  do  this  and 
caused  much  trouble,  but  most  of  the  houses  for 
whom  the  shipments  had  been  made  did  whatever 
was  needed  to  sustain  their  own  and  Russell  &  Co.'s 
credit,  notably,  as  my  father  says  in  1884,  in  look 
ing  back  to  this  time,  that  of  "  the  square,  unpre 
tending  Tom  Wigglesworth ; "  and  the  storm  was 
successfully  weathered. 

Russell  &  Co.'s  affairs,  however,  were  not  his 
only  care  at  this  period.  During  the  panic  his 
brother  Bennet,  too,  had  suffered,  and  at  his  own 
request  had  gone  once  more  to  China  to  take  my 
father's  place  in  Russell  &  Co. 

One  of  his  brother's  business  difficulties  had  to 
do  with  some  nail  works  in  Farrandsville,  Pa.,  and 
thither  in  the  spring  of  1838  my  father  took  a  trip, 
accompanied  by  Mr.  Russell,  of  Plymouth,  on  whom 
he  had  called  for  advice  as  an  expert  in  the  busi 
ness. 

I  give  part  of  a  letter  written  by  him  during  this 
trip,  as  it  may  bring  home  to  the  minds  of  those  of 
my  readers  who  feel  aggrieved  when,  on  any  forced 
journey,  a  Pullman  car  is  denied  them,  what  such  an 


92  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

undertaking  was  in  the  days  of  their  grandfathers. 
He  writes,  in  April,  1838 :  — 

FABRANDSVILLE  HOTEL. 

..."  Landed  day  before  yesterday  at  Lewiston 
at  eight  A.  M.  ;  went  right  to  a  livery  stable  ;  could 
get  a  carry-all  and  pair  of  horses  for  $  10,  but  they 
would  only  travel  four  miles  an  hour.  Went  to 
another,  found  a  ruffianly  looking  fellow  whose  man 
would  drive  five  miles  an  hour ;  told  him  to  hitch 
on  two  pretty,  little,  spirited  horses,  who  soon 
started  off  with  your  humble  servant,  Mr.  Russell, 
and  a  way  passenger  to  go  two  miles,  with  an  Irish 
eighteen-year-old  to  drive.  We  two  in  the  hind 
seat  of  a  carry-all,  very  like  our  veteran,  only  I 
could  not  get  up  the  top  to  keep  off  the  sun ;  most 
luckily.  Glorious  day  ;  found  Pat  was  for  prancing 
along ;  forbade  this ;  got  down  first  hill  pretty 
well,  but  Mr.  R.  scary.  Was  telling  him  of  my 
fall  from  Kate  (in  Boston)  just  as  we  crowned  the 
second  hill ;  says  I, '  She  threw  me  so  far  as  to  clear 
her,  or  else  —  Hullo  !  driver,  mind  your  hand  ! ' 
Kick  !  kick  !  Pat  frightened,  pulled  his  left  rein ; 
both  horses  went  up  on  a  four-foot  steep  bank,  and 
over  went  carry-all,  without  my  having  power  to 
stir  from  my  seat.  I  scrambled  out  of  the  road 
unhurt,  except  my  umbrella  knocked  into  pi  —  '  te 
poor  plack  crow ; '  sprang  to  the  horses'  heads,  and 
with  the  aid  of  passers-by  and  the  driver,  who  had 
kept  his  feet  and  the  reins,  stopped  the  kicking 
horses  and  righted  the  carry-all,  which  was  turned 


TEN  YEARS  OP  BUSINESS  93 

bottom  up,  not  a  strap  broken,  not  a  bone,  my  two 
companions  rubbing  their  shins,  I  unscathed,  the 
driver  exulting  over  his  unbroken  leathers,  and  I  in 

O  ' 

a  gale  at  the  comicality  of  the  whole  thing,  espe 
cially  Mr.  R/s  fright  and  distress,  though  hardly 
bruised  at  all.  ( Noo,'  says  Pat,  '  get  ye  in ;  no 
fear  noo  ;  I  '11  warrant  ye  safe.'  Mr.  R.  would  not 
set  foot  in  that  again,  would  go  back  to  Lewiston. 
After  consultation  we  agreed  to  walk  down  the 
mountain  and  see  how  the  horses  went,  etc. ;  then 
I  got  in  and  took  care,  sitting  in  front,  that  Pat 
should  not  let  horses  get  excited  again,  and  with 
some  difficulty  I  controlled  him,  and  Mr.  R.'s  fears 
gradually  subsided.  Glorious  day  and  splendid 
scenery,  mountains,  river,  brook,  rocks,  and  trees, 
giant  trees  such  as  I  never  saw  before ;  wild  roads 
like  those  in  Berkshire  specked  with  riders  in  sad 
dle,  men  and  women  in  groups,  going  up  to  a  plain, 
log-hut,  Methodist  church ;  not  a  vehicle  in  the  way 
but  ours ;  and  at  the  church  the  grouping  was  fine, 
of  horses  tied  under  the  forest  trees,  and  the  plain 
old  church,  and  plain  old  country-looking  people. 
Stopped  at  the  post-office  to  borrow  a  wafer,  and 
at  the  next  (Pattie's  Mills)  put  my  letter  in.  At 
twelve,  or  one  P.  M.,  found  a  nice  house  kept  by  a 
Boston  man ;  his  daughters  tend  the  table  dressed 
in  black  silk  gowns  and  looking  quite  ( genteel,' 
but  modest  withal.  Heard  much  of  the  iron  works 
from  Mr.  Coverly,  a  shrewd  Yankee  who  has  made 
his  fortune  here,  as  he  told  us,  '  though,'  says  he, 
<God  made  me  and  my  brothers  just  the  poor, 


94  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

broken-down,  weakly  looking  critters  that  you  see 
I  am.'  Heard  that  our  horses  were  celebrated  as 
being  the  most  vicious  in  the  country.  Through  a 
beautiful  country,  and  much  tribulation,  we  passed 
first  Pennsylvania  Valley,  fertile  and  picturesque; 
then  the  mountain,  which  was  on  fire  not  far  from 
us,  if  smoke  told  true ;  and  finally  reached  Belfonte 
(read  Cooper's  ' Pioneer'  for  a  description  of  this 
valley),  a  most  dirty  village,  finely  placed  on  one  of 
the  most  perfect  spots  I  ever  saw.  At  five  P.  M. 
went  to  a  tavern  and  asked  where  was  a  livery  stable 
—  only  one  in  the  place  —  tried  to  make  the  man 
start  off  and  get  twelve  miles  on  our  way  to-night, 
but  the  innkeeper  gave  him  a  wink  on  hearing  Mr. 
R.  talking  to  me  about  the  danger  of  night  travel, 
and  so  would  not  go  till  morning,  and  wanted  $11 ; 
whereas  our  pay  from  first  post,  at  $10,  was  ex 
orbitant  for  thirty  miles.  Offered  him  $10,  and 
start  at  this  hour  in  the  A.  M.  Let  him  go,  after 
telling  him  that  I  was  aware  that  I  must  expect 
Scripture  rule,  '  When  saw  ye  a  stranger  and  took 
him  not  in,'  but  I  would  not  be  bled  too  much  if  I 
had  to  walk.  Sent  for  W.  Manly,  brother  of  a  man 
at  the  works,  now  in  the  shoe  business  at  Belfonte, 
shook  hands  with  him,  told  him  I  must  have  a 
carry-all  to  start  early  next  A.  M.,  and  would  pay 
$10,  etc.,  —  said  he'd  try.  Came  in  and  told  us 
he  had  borrowed  a  carry-all  left  there  for  sale  and  a 
horse  to  go  with  his  three-year-old  colt,  neither  ever 
before  in  double  harness.  (Mem.  Never  hire  carry 
alls  left  for  sale,  and  especially  eschew  old  blood 


TEN  YEARS  OF  BUSINESS  95 

mares — rather  walk.)  Poor  Mr.  R.  remonstrated 
against  going  over  the  hills  in  this  plight,  but  I  told 
him  I  would  not  submit  to  the  livery  stable  keeper's 
charges,  after  once  sending  him  off,  if  it  cost  double 
money  and  risk.  Woke  before  day,  dressed  and 
mustered  up  Manly,  determined  to  succeed,  and 
such  a  team  as  we  had !  A  flashy  carry-all,  a  lanky 
gray  three-year-old  colt,  and  a  white,  very  old,  and 
spirited  blood  mare,  each  carrying  the  head  as  far 
as  possible  from  the  other.  Found  Manly  afraid  of 
them,  so  insisted  on  driving  myself,  and  well  it 
was  I  did.  '  All  aboard  ! '  —  Mr.  R.  trembling 
— '  All  aboard  ! '  (Mem.  Heard  that  yesterday's 
team  smashed  a  carry-all  the  last  time  they  were 
here  and  had  to  be  ridden  back.)  Started  on  the 
jump,  hauling  Colty  along.  Soon  brought  her  to 
bearings  and  gradually  made  them  know  my  voice 
a  little  (lucky) ;  got  along  well  enough  for  eleven 
miles  over  a  decent  road  sprinkled  with  stumps  and 
holes  (my  driving  much  admired),  everybody  we 
met  on  horseback.  Stopped  at  a  Dutch  inn  and 
had  a  long  argument  on  politics  with  an  old  Dutch 
farmer ;  did  not  hope  to  convert  him,  only  wanted 
a  little  fun  ;  Mr.  R.  quite  indignant  at  the  old  fel 
low's  putting  Washington  and  Jackson  together  ;  I 
told  him  W.  was  a  real  Federalist  and  bank  man, 
and  he  ought  not  to  praise  him.  (Mem.  May  tame 
a  tiger,  find  a  silent  woman,  catch  the  sea-serpent, 
but  convince  a  Dutchman,  never  !)  A  mile  farther 
met  a  train  of  covered  wagons,  men  with  rifles, 
women  and  children  walking,  bound  West.  A  little 


96  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

farther  on,  Manly  sang  out,  '  Hold  hard  ! '  '  Wo- 
o-o  ! '  says  I,  pulling  up  just  in  time  to  avoid  an 
other  capsize.  Fore  wheel,  starboard  side,  just  on 
the  axletree ;  stopped  half  an  hour,  got  a  staple  from 
a  farmhouse  and  drove  it  in  half  way.  '  There/ 
says  Manly,  '  that  '11  go  forever  ! '  The  white  crit 
ter  pranced,  and  off  we  went  again.  Came  to  a 
long  hill ;  then  says  Manly,  '  Let  them  go  down 
lively,  Mr.  F.'  '  No/  says  I, '  that  won't  do  here.' 
Just  then  they  began  to  go  it,  and  I  to  hold  on, 
both  horses  prancing,  Whitey  kicking  like  a  devil 
right  against  the  dasher.  '  Turn  them  up  that 
bank/  says  M.  '  Wo-o-o  ! '  says  I,  holding  hard, 
( I  've  had  enough  of  banks ! '  So  after  a  while 
I  stopped  them  in  the  road,  instead  of  turning 
over  again ;  got  out,  and  lengthened  the  traces  so 
as  to  bring  the  horses  farther  from  the  carriage. 
The  two  men  walked,  and  I  drove  down  the  hill, 
horses  still  very  restive.  Near  the  bottom  the 
staple  came  out  and  wheel  nearly  off  again.  '  Bet 
ter  look  at  the  other  wheels/  said  I.  (  They  are 
all  right,  I  '11  secure/  said  Manly,  a  harum-scarum 
dog.  '  Look/  says  I.  '  Hollo  !  here  's  another 
linch-pin  gone.'  '  I  do  believe/  says  he,  '  that 
skillful  livery  man  took  'em  out.'  'Fix  it/  says 
I.  (  Boy,  where  is  there  a  smith?'  '  A  little  piece 
on.'  So  on  we  went,  they  walking,  I  watching  my 
wheel,  which  varied  from  one  to  six  inches  on  the 
axle  ;  found  the  smith  and  set  him  to  work  making 
pins.  That  nearly  done,  I  thought  I  would  take  a 
look  at  all  the  fixtures  of  the  carry-all.  '  Hollo  — 


TEN  YEARS  OF  BUSINESS  97 

no  wonder  the  horses  kicked  ! '  The  bolt  by  which 
the  pole  holds  back  the  carry-all  was  gone,  and 
the  jamming  of  the  pole  between  two  small  pieces 
of  wood  was  all  that  kept  us  from  the  horses'  heels ; 
the  next  hill  would  have  fixed  us.  In  two  hours 
the  new  bolt  pins  were  made,  and  off  we  went.  Our 
only  trouble  now  was,  that  at  every  ascent  the  tired 
horses  would  stop.  Whitey  began  to  act,  and  one 
of  us  got  out  and  led  them  again,  and  jumped  in 
without  stopping.  Dined  at  Lockhaven,  found  G. 
B.  Manly.  Crossed  the  river  and  started  for  Far- 
randsville  along  the  towpath  (river  on  one  side, 
ditch  on  the  other)  twelve  feet  high  and  twelve  feet 
wide  at  the  top.  Frequent  stops,  coaxings,  whip 
pings,  and  starts.  At  one  of  these,  as  we  were 
starting  pretty  quick,  and  I  holding  in,  I  found  the 
horses  steering  right  for  the  river,  off  the  track, 
which  was  here  a  little  wider  than  usual,  say  twenty 
feet.  In  vain  I  pulled  the  other  rein,  then  by  roar 
ing  '  W  o-o-o ! '  stopped  the  horses  just  on  the 
edge.  My  right  rein  had  caught  in  the  runner  by 
a  buckle,  and  by  pulling  both  to  hold,  I  was  steer 
ing  into  the  river.  Arrived  here  at  four  p.  M. 
Looked  at  the  works,  slept  soundly,  and  from  a 
bright  heavenly  day  woke  up  to  this  snowstorm." 

I  am  sorry  not  to  find  any  account  of  my  father's 
return  trip,  but,  strange  to  say,  it  must  have  been 
safely  accomplished.  Looking  back  on  this  period 
he  writes :  — 

"  The  care  of  R.  B.  F.'s  affairs  and  my  work  for 


98  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

Russell  &  Co.,  with  the  sales  of  consignments  from 
China,  gave  me  little  leisure  for  two  or  three  years, 
but  were  a  very  valuable  training  in  American  busi 
ness.  My  direct  relations  with  Houqua  continued 
after  my  return  from  China." 

As  to  these  relations  I  give  extracts  here  from 
two  of  Houqua' s  letters  to  my  father  :  — 

CANTON,  May  4, 1837. 

MY  YOUNG  FRIEND,  —  It  is  several  weeks  since  I 
have  called  on  an  amanuensis  to  pen  for  me  a  letter 
to  you,  and  I  do  so  now  to  show  you  that  notwith 
standing  my  age  and  the  many  cares  which  oppress 
me,  I  bear  you  in  mind.  Before  you  receive  this 
you  will  probably  have  been  at  home  more  than  six 
months.  I  count  on  seeing  you  again,  probably 
before  another  year  is  ended,  and  shall  be  most 
glad  to  welcome  you  back.  .  .  .  You  must  recollect 
that  I  have  given  you  authority  to  manage  my  busi 
ness,  and  I  do  not  wish  you  to  delegate  it  to  any 
one  unless  you  should  come  back  to  China,  and 
then  you  must  leave  the  power  in  the  hands  of  the 
consignees  of  the  property,  or  if  they  should  not  be 
trustworthy,  in  those  of  some  other  safe  house.  .  .  . 
Mr.  Green  has  reminded  me  several  times  that  I 
promised  to  sit  for  my  portrait  for  you,  but  as  yet 
I  have  had  no  leisure. 

Pray  don't  neglect  to  write  to  me, 

I  remain,  your  friend, 

HOUQUA. 


TEN  YEARS  OF  BUSINESS  99 

THE  SAME  TO  THE   SAME. 

CANTON,  August  10,  1838. 

MY  YOUNG  FRIEND,  —  I  have  received  your  letter 
of  March  3.  By  the  Levant  I  make  you  a  consider 
able  consignment  of  tea  and  silk  piece  goods,  which 
I  have  had  on  hand  for  some  time,  and  cannot  sell 
here.  I  wish  you  to  consult  Mr.  Gushing  about 
the  sale  of  this  consignment  and  to  follow  his 
advice.  Eemember,  security  is  my  first  object :  I 
desire  to  run  no  unnecessary  risks,  and  want,  if 
possible,  to  have  the  accounts  closed  early.  ...  It 
gives  me  much  pleasure  to  hear  of  your  good  health, 
though  you  say  nothing  of  your  son's.  You  know 
it  is  an  ambition  common  to  my  countrymen  to 
have  many  sons,  and  I  confess  I  feel  inclined  to 
congratulate  my  friends  when  I  hear  that  they  are 
contributing  their  quota  to  posterity  in  this  way. 
My  grandson  sends  his  regards,  to  which,  my  dear 
friend,  I  add  my  own  most  sincerely, 

HOUQUA. 

It  was  in  the  interval  between  the  dates  of  these 
letters  of  Houqua  that  an  event  occurred  which 
was  the  first  to  startle  all  New  England  out  of  the 
indifference  about  slavery ;  and  (with  what  followed 
it)  it  strongly  affected  my  father's  after  life.  This 
was  the  murder  of  Elijah  P.  Love  joy,1  a  clergyman 
who  had  tried  printing  a  newspaper  at  St.  Louis, 
in  which  he  condemned  the  burning  of  a  negro. 
For  this  offense  his  press  had  been  destroyed.  He 

1  At  Alton,  November  7, 1837. 


100  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

had  retreated  to  the  Illinois  side  of  the  Missis 
sippi  and  managed  to  set  up  another  press,  which 
shared  the  fate  of  the  first.  He  scraped  together 
enough  money  to  set  up  a  third.  But  this  was  too 
much  for  the  Missouri  mob,  who  this  time  crossed 
the  river  in  force,  killed  Lovejoy,  and  burned  up 
press,  building,  and  all.  This  aroused  Boston  at 
last.  An  indignation  meeting  was  proposed  by  Dr. 
Channing,  but  so  strong  was  the  hold  of  slavery  in 
those  da^s  that  the  use  of  Faneuil  Hall  was  granted 
only  after  much  urging.  The  meeting  was  held, 
but  the  upholders  of  slavery  were  to  the  fore  in 
great  numbers ;  they  made  so  much  noise  that  it 
seemed  doubtful  whether  the  meeting  would  indorse 
Love  joy  or  his  murderers,  when  a  young  man  climbed 
to  the  platform,  and,  with  a  voice  which  never  after 
wards  failed  of  holding  his  audience,  made  a  speech 
which  turned  the  tide  completely.  Of  it  my  father 
says :  — 

"I  was  present  by  chance  and  heard  Wendell 
Phillips,  then  almost  unknown,  break  out  in  his 
great  speech,  perhaps  the  best  he  ever  made,  de 
nouncing  the  murder.  I  had  never  before  heard 
his  name,  and  few  people  outside  of  his  class  in 
college  knew  him  as  a  man  of  talent.  Up  to  that 
time  I  had  been  neutral  or  indifferent  on  the  sub 
ject  of  slavery.  That  speech  changed  my  whole 
feeling  with  regard  to  it,  though  the  bigotry  and 
pigheadedness  of  the  abolitionists  prevented  my  act 
ing  with  them." 

To  return  to  the  calmer  atmosphere  of  my  father's 


TEN  YEARS  OF  BUSINESS  101 

agency  for  Houqua  in  Boston ;  I  need  only  add 
that,  as  time  went  on,  it  did  not  stop  at  Chinese  and 
other  merchandise,  but  embraced  general  invest 
ments  in  this  country.  I  find  him  saying,  when 
recalling  that  period  :  — 

"  I  had  saved  up  the  moderate  competency  which 
I  had  brought  home  from  China,  and  was  owning 
ships  and  doing  a  commission  business  with  good 
credit,  based  upon  what  I  had  done  in  that  country 
and  upon  somewhat  exaggerated  ideas  on  the  part 
of  my  correspondents,  due  to  my  having  the  man 
agement  of  about  half  a  million  of  my  friend  Hou 
qua' s  money.  This,  at  his  especial  request,  was 
held  in  my  own  name,  though  the  ownership  was 
indicated  in  my  books  by  the  initials  A.  S.  I.,  which 
meant  American  Stock  Investment.  This  account 
was  kept  carefully  unmixed  with  my  own  invest 
ments,  although  I  made  it  a  rule  never  to  buy  any 
thing  for  it  which  I  was  not  also  buying  for  myself." 

Then  he  goes  on  to  speak  of  different  fine  ships  in 
which  he  was  interested  in  those  days,  and  adds :  — 

"  These  were  then  called  clippers,  although  a  few 
years  later,  when  for  California  we  built  yachts  of 
1500  to  2500  tons,  they  would  have  been  called 
clumps." 

With  regard  to  one  of  these  ships,  the  Acbar, 
I  find  the  following  instructions  given  by  him  to 
her  captain,  Philip  Dumaresq,  when  she  was  about 
to  leave  Boston  for  Canton  in  1839.  I  insert  these 
in  full  as  illustrative  of  the  methods  of  business  in 
those  days,  and  of  my  father's  careful  forethought : 


102          JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

"  CAPT.  P.  DUMARESQ,  —  On  making  the  coast 
of  China,  please  have  a  letter  to  Mr.  K.  B.  F. 
ready,  stating  what  cargo  and  funds  you  have  on 
board,  and  that  unless  there  is  some  extraordinary 
inducement  to  buy  teas,  your  object  is  to  employ 
the  ship  either  in  some  freighting  business  in  the 
East  (cotton  being  your  first  object  if  there  is  a  fair 
prospect),  or,  if  nothing  can  be  got  except  rice,  in 
taking  freight  to  this  part  of  the  world.  Tell  him 
where  you  mean  to  anchor,  and  ask  information  by 
return  boat  as  to  the  state  of  affairs,1  and  advice  as 
to  taking  your  ship  to  Lintin,  and  taking  very 
quietly  a  pilot  at  once,  or  waiting  among  the 
islands,  if  anything  secret  is  to  be  done,  until  you 
can  see  him  and  concert  measures.  Give  him  all 
the  information  you  can  as  to  the  markets,  ships, 
etc.  When  you  are  boarded  by  a  Fast  Boat,  if 
they  lead  you  to  believe  that  the  Americans  are  at 
Canton  and  will  agree  at  once  to  carry  up  a  letter, 
anchor  in  some  out-of-the-way  place,  and  send  the 
boat  up  with  such  letters  only  as  are  marked  to  be 
put  up,  for  it  would  not  be  safe  to  risk  others : 
make  the  Fast  Boat  man's  pay  depend  on  his  keep 
ing  your  arrival  secret  and  on  bringing  you  an 
answer  within  a  stipulated  time.  If  upon  cross- 
examining  the  Fast  Boat  men  you  have  any  doubt 
about  the  Americans  being  at  Canton  and  you  can 
ascertain  that  the  Lintin,  Captain  Oilman,  is  still 
outside,  send  one  of  your  mates  to  the  Lintin.  Tell 

1  War  between  England  and  China  was  expected  when  these 
instructions  were  made  out.  —  ED. 


TEN  YEARS  OF  BUSINESS  103 

x 

him,  without  letting  out  where  he  comes  from,  to 
find  out  where  Mr.  Forbes  is  and  to  forward  to  him 
your  letter  as  quickly  as  possible.  If  you  cannot 
satisfy  yourself  that  the  Lintin  is  outside,  send  your 
mate  to  Macao  with  like  orders  and  cautions.  Keep 
back  all  letters  and  papers,  except  such  as  you  have 
orders  about,  until  you  get  advice  from  Canton  that 
they  may  be  delivered  without  injury  to  us.  The 
reason  for  thus  trying  to  keep  your  arrival  secret 
may  be  either,  that  it  is  an  object,  from  any  cause, 
to  buy  at  once  to  extent  of  your  funds,  with  the 
market  to  yourself ;  or  it  may  be  that  the  negotia 
tions  of  the  English  with  the  Chinese  are  just  at 
such  a  point,  that  if  it  were  known  to  the  former 
that  an  American  ship  was  going  up  they  would 
give  her  warning  that  she  went  up  with  the  risk  of 
being  kept  in  (an  informal  notice  it  would  be,  but 
still  might  be  embarrassing) ;  or  it  may  be  that  if 
they  had  nearly  decided  to  commence  a  blockade, 
they  might  reason,  Here  is  an  American  ship  going 
in  and  it  is  a  good  time  to  begin :  when  if  they  did 
not  know  of  any  vessel  going  up,  a  day  or  two's 
delay  on  their  part  might  turn  the  scale  in  favor  of 
the  voyage  —  by  letting  you  slip  in  lawfully.  In 
case  no  China  boat  came  near  you,  you  would  have 
to  go  either  on  to  Macao  Roads  or  to  Lintin,  and 
then  keep  your  own  counsel  and  your  letters  until 
you  could  act  advisedly. 

"  In  writing  E.  B.  F.  it  would  be  well  to  give 
him  a  copy  of  our  other  instructions  to  you  about 
cargo,  and  to  authorize  him  if  necessary  to  act 


104  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

upon  them  promptly  without  awaiting  a  reference 
to  you. 

"  As  it  is  possible  you  may  on  arrival,  or  after 
wards,  be  below  Canton,  while  that  port  is  in  a  state 
of  blockade,  we  would  in  these  private  instructions 
give  you  our  ideas  with  regard  to  the  risks  we  shall 
be  willing  to  run. 

"  1st.  If  you  can  at  any  time  get  into  port  be 
fore  the  blockade,  it  might  be  very  important  for 
you  to  wait  until  the  time  allowed  by  the  blockad 
ing  squadron  to  come  off  with  cargo  had  expired, 
in  order  to  get  teas  down  in  consequence  of  other 
vessels  being  off.  Again,  you  might  be  able  by 
a  false  start  for  sea  from  Macao  Roads  to  return 
(after  a  blockade  commenced)  and  get  into  the 
river  without  much  risk.  Again,  you  might  per 
haps  be  able  to  get  in  back  of  Macao  in  some  snug 
bay,  or  even  run  up  to  Hong  Kong  (at  the  end  of 
Broad  way  passage),  and  then  by  concert  meet 
cargo  boats  from  Canton.  Under  such  circum 
stances  we  should  be  willing  to  have  you  take  either 
of  these  steps,  provided,  after  a  full  knowledge  of  all 
the  chances,  you  and  Mr.  Forbes  agree  that  the 
object,  the  prospect  of  gain,  was  much  greater  than 
the  risk.  If  the  British  fleet  should  from  any  cause 
be  placed  as  they  were  during  the  war,  viz.,  at  or 
about  Chunpa  only,  we  should  think  a  well-con 
certed  run  in  might  be  made  with  but  little  risk, 
and  that  you  might  by  watching  your  chance  run 
out  with  little  or  no  risk ;  but  if,  as  is  likely,  the 
Chinese  block  up  the  river,  or  the  English  take  the 


TEN  YEARS  OF  BUSINESS  105 

forts  and  send  a  ship  to  Whampoa,  you  would  stand 
no  chance  of  escape.  Unless,  therefore,  there  is 
strong  probability  of  their  staying  at  Chunpa  and 
taking  half  measures,  it  would  be  highly  imprudent 
to  run  in  or  stay  in.  We  will  only  say,  however, 
that  we  should  be  willing  to  take  a  small  risk  for 
the  chance  of  a  very  great  gain,  and  with  this  re 
mark  shall  agree  to  whatever  you  and  Mr.  F.  may 
decide  under  such  circumstances. 

"  Remember  that  in  case  of  a  blockade  the  Chi 
nese  would  pardon  your  running  into  the  river 
without  a  pilot,  and  secondly  that  if  you  had  secret 
notice  or  strong  enough  suspicion  to  warrant  such  a 
step,  you  might  (having  no  notice  that  could  be 
proved  upon  you)  take  a  good  chance  and  run  for 
the  river,  with  only  the  risk  of  being  stopped  and 
turned  back." 

It  would  seem  that  war  had  actually  broken  out 
between  Great  Britain  and  China  when  the  Acbar 
arrived  off  the  coast,  but  that  all  consequent  dif 
ficulties  were  met ;  so  that  this  voyage  was  referred 
to  afterwards  as  unusually  successful. 

To  return  to  his  Milton  life  and  its  amusements. 
Prominent  among  these  was  tree  planting,  which 
all  through  life  was  one  of  my  father's  chief  inter 
ests  and  occupations  "out  of  office  hours."  One 
of  the  first  things  he  did  after  buying  "  the  Briggs 
lot,"  on  Milton  Hill,  in  1834,  on  which  during  his 
second  voyage  to  China  his  cottage  was  built  for 


106  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

him,  was  to  import  about  20,000  trees,  of  which 
white  pine  and  Norway  spruce  were  his  favorites,  and 
so  to  shut  out  the  bare  expanse  of  Neponset  mud- 
bank  which  lay  below  the  place  to  the  north.  This 
belt  of  trees,  as  time  went  on,  made  a  barrier  against 
the  north  and  east  winds,  not  only  for  the  cottage, 
but  for  the  house,  which  he  afterwards  built  about 
a  quarter  of  a  mile  to  the  east  of  it.  The  whole 
place  was  very  bleak  and  bare  when  he  bought  it, 
and  the  tree  and  evergreen  shrub  planting  com 
pletely  transformed  it.  Indeed,  after  a  time,  it  be 
came  necessary  to  open  views  of  Boston  Bay,  and  it 
was  always  a  struggle  for  him  to  cut  down  any  of 
these  cherished  objects,  even  when  he  recognized 
that  one  tree  hindered  the  perfection  of  another's 
growth.  Later  on  at  Naushon,  where  Governor 
Swain  had  already  made  some  beginning  in  tree 
planting,  my  father  continued  it  with  great  zest, 
trying  experiments  of  various  sorts  to  the  end  of 
his  life. 

Eiding  was  always  one  of  his  chief  enjoyments. 
He  looked  back  fondly  to  the  black  mare,  named 
Di  Vernon,  which  he  had  bought  for  my  mother, 
and  the  Judge,  a  three  quarters  bred  chestnut,  of 
which  his  brother  Bennet  gave  him  the  use.  My 
father's  order  to  the  groom,  when  requiring  these 
to  be  saddled,  "  Saddle  the  Judge  and  Di,"  was,  as 
he  recalls,  long  remembered.  The  Judge  was  left 
with  him  when  his  brother  returned  to  China  in 
1837  ;  and  my  father  tells  how  that  spirited  ani 
mal,  soon  after  this,  came  near  breaking  his  neck 


TEN  YEARS  OF  BUSINESS  107 

and  that  of  Governor  Swain,  already  a  very  heavy 
man.  As  they  were  driving  into  Boston,  the  Judge 
ran  away  with  the  chaise  for  a  mile  at  full  speed, 
my  father  and  the  governor  both  holding  on  to  the 
reins,  and  contriving  to  pull  him  in  just  as  he  was 
on  the  point  of  dashing  down  the  Boston  side  of 
Meeting-House  Hill.  The  governor  alighted  and 
made  for  a  house.  My  father  exclaimed,  "  Where 
are  you  going,  governor  ?  "  "To  get  a  gun  to 
kill  that  horse."  "  Get  in,  governor,  and  go  on." 
"  Not  for  ten  thousand  dollars,"  said  the  governor, 
"  will  I  ever  sit  behind  that  horse  again."  My 
father  winds  up  with,  "  Of  his  (the  horse's)  career  I 
remember  nothing  except  that,  some  time  after,  he 
ran  away  with  somebody  else  and  broke  his  neck 
against  an  iron  fence." 

It  must  have  been  in  the  thirties  that  Johnny 
Crapaud,  the  queer  little  animal  already  mentioned, 
came  to  Naushon,  where  he  was  to  pass  the  re 
mainder  of  his  life.  Captain  Anthony,  of  New 
Bedford,  on  a  voyage  to  Havre,  saw  Johnny  there, 
carrying  a  rider  twice  his  own  size,  took  pity  on 
him,  brought  him  home,  and  presented  him  to  Gov 
ernor  Swain.  Johnny  was  the  incarnation  of  intel 
ligence  and  mischief,  could  open  gates  and  let  all 
the  horses  into  the  cornfields,  and  was  withal  the 
only  steed  I  ever  heard  of  which  the  governor's 
wife,  my  quiet  Quaker  aunt  Lydia,  would  mount. 
He  suited  her  exactly,  for  she  could  knit  tranquilly 
on  his  back. 

I  may  as  well  say  here  that  he  was  translated  in 


108  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

1864,  at  no  one  knows  exactly  what  age,  but  cer 
tainly  over  thirty-five.  He  disappeared  one  day, 
and  though  all  the  swamps  at  his  end  of  the  island 
were  searched,  his  small  body  was  never  found.1 

1  I  give  here  his  epitaph,  in  which  my  father  took  great  delight, 
written  by  the  Rev.  John  Weiss  ;  perhaps  one  of  the  cleverest  of  the 
contributions  to  the  "  Island  Book,"  —  a  book  wherein  were  inscribed 
all  names  of  family  and  guests  at  Naushon,  with  such  verses  and 
skits  as  the  poetry  or  wit  of  the  visitors  afforded  :  — 

This  Page 
Is  dedicated  to  the  Memory  of 

Johnny  Crapaud: 
Who  emigrated  from  Havre,  France, 

In  disgust 

At  carrying  a  rider  twice  as  large 
As  himself. 

He  left 

An  overgrown  Civilization 

To  offer  his  services, 

Like  Lafayette, 

To 

Young  America. 
Fortunate  that  he  looked  upon 

Naushon 
As  a  stable  place  of  residence, 

For  there  all  the  good 
Little  people  of  the  mainland  go. 

Also 

Light-weighted  Clergymen 

And  light-witted  Women. 

Hard  as  the  latter  are  to  bear, 

Johnny  Crapaud 
Bore  them  with  his  native  gayety. 

But  he  loved  best 
To  trot  out  the  little  people ; 

And  light  Clergymen. 
This  he  did  for  nearly  thirty  years 
Under  two  beneficent  regimes. 

How  many 
Pale  cheeks  and  dull  eyes  he  trotted 

Into  glow  and  gladness, 
Whisking  his  inefficient  tail, 


TEN  YEARS  OF  BUSINESS  109 

Johnny's  portrait  still  adorns  the  walls  at  the 
mansion  house  at  Naushon. 

Every  hair  of  which 
Could  be  numbered  without  the  assistance 

Of  Providence : 
It  was  a  tail  that  might  have  been 

Told. 

His  color  was  a  russet-brown : 
Though  he  was  a  little  heavy  by 

The  head, 

His  eye  twinkled  with  private  reflections 
Which  he  had  the  sense  never 

To  impart. 
Like  all  persons  who  have 

Made  up  their  mind, 
He  was  rather  hard  to  turn ; 

And  has  been  known 
To  Carry  a  Clergyman  Contemptuously 

Through  the  underbrush, 
As  if  Nature  were  superior 

To  Grace. 

He  could  open  gates 
And  thus  extend  his  area  of  freedom : 

And  was  not  always 

Found  in  his  appropriate  pasture : 

Thus  singularly  sympathizing 

With  mankind. 

Of  late 
He  had  become  enfeebled ; 

So  that  when  one  day 
He  attempted  to  reach  his  grand 

Climb-act-trick, 

He  turned  a  summerset  and 

Went  down  the  hill : 

For  his  tail 

Was  futile  to  arrest  him. 

He  has  been  going  down  ever  since. 

His  last  ride  he  gave  to 

The  little  grandson, 

Whose  father  is  at  the  Country's  front. 

To  be  set  upon 

In  this  way 

Was  an  honor  to  a  foreign  pony : 
And  no  doubt  he  felt  that  his 


110  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

At  Milton,  on  the  15th  of  November,  1838,  my 
twin  sisters,  Alice  and  Ellen,  were  born,  and  on  the 

Crib  was  full. 

At  length 
Sometime  in  the  month  of 

August,  1864, 

Though  all  the  gates  were  shut, 
He  disappeared. 

Search 

Was  made  for  him 
In  the  supposition  that  feeling  his 

End  approach 
He  went  to  meet  it : 

Thus 
Delicately  saving  the  expenses  of 

A  burial, 
And  adroitly  prolonging  the  period 

Of  mourning  among  those 

Who  so  often  felt  themselves 

Above  him. 

His  friends 

Are  all  the  good  little  people  who 
Have  grown  up  able  to 

Recollect 

And  appreciate  his 

Mute  and  honest  service  : 

And  at  least  one 

Clergyman. 

No  doubt 

As  a  happy  recognition  of 
That  service, 

He 

Who  had  taken  so  many  to  ride 
Was  at  last  carried  off  in 

A  Chariot : 

Poached  like  the  patriarch. 
May  he  find  many 

Clergymen 

In  the  place  whither  he  has  gone : 
And  innumerable  Orthodox  children 

To  render  happy 

Who  have  hitherto  been  deemed 

Damned. 


TEN  YEARS  OF  BUSINESS  111 

20th  of  December,  1839,  I  find  my  father  writing 
to  his  brother  in  China :  — 

"  With  care  I  hope  to  see  them  robust  children ; 
yet  they  are  remarkable  already  for  a  thousand 
valuable  qualities  of  heart  and  head ;  one  ought  to 
be  named  Prodigy  and  the  other  Phenomenon! 
They  sit  at  table,  stand,  almost  walk  alone,  say  a 
few  words,  or  something  like  words,  and  in  fine  are 

getting  to  be  very  charming I  'm  getting 

quite  in  love  with  the  dear  little  souls." 

In  1840  my  brother  William  was  born ;  and  in 
the  following  spring  my  parents  went  to  Philadel 
phia  to  see  my  mother's  brother,  William  Hatha 
way.  He  was  taken  very  ill  a  week  after  their 
arrival,  and  my  father  says  in  his  notes :  — 

"I  had  to  resume  my  post  as  nurse  for  the 
second  time  in  a  smallpox  case.  This  time  the 
trial  was  short  and  sharp,  for  in  about  a  fortnight 
we  laid  his  remains  in  the  Laurel  Hill  cemetery, 
afterwards  transferring  them  to  Naushon.  He  was 
only  twenty-eight  years  old,  and  was  the  most 
attractive  man  I  ever  came  in  contact  with  ;  manly, 
handsome,  magnetic;  he  sang  well,  rode,  hunted, 
did  everything  well,  and  was  the  universal  favorite 
of  all  who  knew  him,  men  and  women.  I  have 
always  felt  that  if  he  had  lived  until  the  rebellion 

And  as  he  has  not  remaned, 
May  at  least 

His  tail 
Resume  its  lost  hairs 

Now 
Hairs  of  glory. 


112  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

he  must  have  played  a  great  part  in  military  life, 
for  which  he  had  a  marked  turn." 

When,  years  afterwards,  my  uncle's  body  was 
removed  to  Naushon,  my  father,  who  had  been  sud 
denly  obliged  to  take  a  voyage  to  England,  wrote 
from  on  board  the  steamship  Canada :  — 

"  I  only  regret  that  I  could  not  be  with  you 
when  consigning  them  to  their  last  resting-place  in 
the  bright  forest  which  he  loved  so  well,  and  where, 
if  I  ever  wasted  a  thought  upon  the  disposition  of 
my  shell  when  the  spirit  has  left  it,  I  should  choose 
my  own  to  be  placed;  although  I  may  as  well  say 
here,  that  for  myself  I  have  no  feeling  on  that  sub 
ject  and  would  rather  the  poor  mortal  form  should 
be  forgotten,  and  only  the  picture  of  the  inner  man, 
lighted  by  such  spirit  and  such  affection  as  my 
friends  could  throw  around  it,  remain  for  their  mem- 
ory." 

I  have  referred  to  my  father's  precautions  for  our 
younger  folk  at  Naushon  in  the  matter  of  boating. 
He  himself  speaks  as  follows  of  the  only  boating 
accident  in  his  own  experience,  which  came  near 
being  a  fatal  one :  — 

"  Perhaps  the  nearest  I  ever  came  to  having  to 
swim  for  my  life  was  in  1842,  when  Commodore 
Bennet  was  out  on  a  trial  trip  with  the  new 
schooner  Ariel,  a  boat  of  about  100  tons,  destined 
for  China.  It  was  a  blustering  summer  day,  and 
we  soon  found  she  was  over-sparred,  or  under-bal 
lasted,  but  having  a  strong  crew,  including  Fowler, 
the  Boston  pilot,  we  kept  on  trying  her  at  some 


TEN  YEARS  OF  BUSINESS  113 

risk,  once  nearly  going  over  off  the  Hardings,  out 
side  of  Boston  Light,  in  sixty  feet  of  water  or  more. 
Coming  in  through  the  narrows  we  had  a  strong 
head  wind  with  a  tide  going  the  other  way,  which 
tripped  her  up,  and  the  first  thing  we  knew  was 
seeing  the  sails  in  the  water  and  the  sea  pouring 
down  the  open  companion  way,  filling  her.  We 
scrambled  up  on  her  bilge,  and  then  Fowler  called 
out  to  me  to  help  save  the  old  gentleman  who  was 
being  swept  down  into  the  cabin  by  the  rush ;  we 
got  hold  of  his  collar  and  pulled  him  up  among  us, 
and  found  it  was  old  Captain  Kichard  Cleveland 
(perhaps  eighty  years  old),  the  father  of  cousin 
Sarah  Cleveland's  husband,  and  a  cousin  of  our 
President  Cleveland.  He  was  a  very  plucky  old 
man,  and  had  been  capsized  a  little  while  before  on 
Jamaica  Pond  (besides  many  other  adventures  since 
told  in  a  book),  and  took  it  very  coolly.  We  had  a 
boat  towing  astern,  but  by  bad  luck  her  painter  was 
fastened  to  leeward  and  the  belaying  -  pin  was 
already  under  water  out  of  reach.  K.  B.  F.,  with 
his  usual  presence  of  mind,  walked  out  on  the  main 
boom,  got  into  the  boat  and  began  cutting  the  hard 
painter  with  a  little  penknife,  sawing  away  at  it  as 
our  vessel  sank.  We  watched  him  with  eager  eyes, 
for  our  lives  depended  on  its  not  breaking  and  on 
its  continuing  to  cut  fast  enough.  I  had  (as  usual) 
a  good  jackknife,  which  I  opened  and  held  ready  in 
my  mouth  while  steadying  myself  to  run  or  swim 
out  to  him  if  his  knife  gave  out ;  but  he  had  the 
line  out  just  as  the  water  began  to  rise  over  our 


114  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

shoes  where  we  stood  on  the  Ariel's  side,  still  nearly 
dry.  He  pulled  the  boat  in  rapidly  by  the  end  of 
the  painter,  and  we  all  got  on  board  without  any 
serious  wetting,  except  Captain  Cleveland.  The 
captain  and  crew  of  the  vessel,  however,  who  were 
forward  letting  go  the  anchor,  got  a  panic  when 
they  saw  her  sinking  for  fear  the  whirlpool  would 
suck  them  in,  as  is  the  traditional  danger  of  sinking 
ships,  so  they  jumped  overboard  to  escape  being 
drowned,  while  the  vessel  sank  with  hardly  a  ripple 
or  a  whirl,  the  whirlpool  danger  being  one  of  the 
many  popular  chimeras  which  annually  destroy  a 
certain  number  of  valuable  lives.  Here  too  came 
in  an  illustration  of  the  value  of  coolness  in  danger. 
When  we  went  over,  the  yacht  Breeze,  steered  by  old 
Captain  William  Sturgis,  was  close  by  us  to  wind 
ward,  with  a  party  of  friends.  The  captain  some 
how  for  once  lost  his  head  and  did  the  wrong  thing, 
and  did  not  get  down  to  us  until  we  were  safe  on 
our  boat,  nor  in  time  to  save  one  of  the  crew. 
These  were  rescued  by  the  captain  of  a  fisherman, 
half  a  mile  off  when  he  saw  us  go  over,  who  jumped 
into  the  little  boat  which  was  towing  astern  and 
reached  us  in  time  to  pick  up  some  of  them.  I  was 
glad  to  find  that  danger  had  not  paralyzed  me,  and 
I  had  made  up  my  mind  that  as  one  boat  might  not 
hold  us  all,  some  of  us  younger  ones  had  only  to 
get  overboard  and  hold  on  to  the  little  boat  until 
relief  came  up.  As  we  sailed  up  the  harbor  an 
other  yacht,  I  think  Winchester's  Northern  Light, 
hailed  us,  and  asked  if  the  Ariel  was  still  down 


TEN  YEARS  OF  BUSINESS  115 

the  harbor.  The  commodore,  K.  B.  F.,  jumped  up 
on  the  taffrail  and  with  a  very  pregnant  gesture, 
pointing  to  the  bottom,  said,  '  Yes,  very  far  down  ! ' 
We  got  ashore  and  back  to  our  friends  on  Milton 
Hill  without  their  having  seen  the  accident,  it  was 
all  so  quick,  although  they  had  been  watching  us. 
The  Ariel  was  raised,  her  spars  reduced,  and  she 
went  out  to  China,  proving  a  very  safe  and  fast  boat. 
She  was  modeled,  and  half  owned,  by  old  Joe  Lee, 
and  was  very  long  for  her  beam,  and  very  sharp." 

I  find  that  in  April,  1843,  Daniel  Webster, 
then  Secretary  of  State,  sent  a  circular  to  China 
merchants  asking  for  suggestions  from  them  in 
view  of  the  public  mission  about  to  start  for  China, 
"for  the  purpose  of  cultivating  friendly  relations 
with  that  empire."  My  father  was  deputed  to  draw 
up  the  answer  which  was  signed  by  the  merchants 
of  Boston  engaged  in  that  trade,  and  sent  in  due 
course  to  the  proper  quarter.  This  document  seems 
to  an  outsider  to  cover  all  possible  points,  but  as  it 
runs  to  a  "  Seventhly "  and  "  Finally  "  I  refrain 
from  giving  it  here. 

About  this  time  I  find  my  father  giving  his  views 
to  a  relative  in  the  matter  of  expenditure  by  men 
engaged  in  trade.  I  think  it  best  to  give  what  he 
wrote,  though  I  have  already  referred  briefly  to  his 
opinion  on  the  subject :  — 

"  There  is  one  point  on  which  I  think  I  can  con 
vince  you  that  you  are  wrong. 

"  You  say  that  where  a  man  is  engaged  in  trade 
there  are  no  means  of  computing  his  income,  or 


116  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

what  amount  it  would  be  prudent  for  him  to  spend. 
Now  I  think  there  is  a  way  of  judging  the  future 
by  the  past.  My  trade  operations  since  I  began 
business  when  a  boy  in  Canton,  or,  if  you  take  a 
fairer  test,  since  I  returned  from  China,  in  1837, 
have  not  averaged  over  six  per  cent,  interest  on  the 
amount  invested,  if  you  take  out  the  first  lucky  hit 
of  the  Acbar  by  being  out  during  the  China  war, 
and  the  very  nice  tea  speculation  to  England  that 
was  made  for  me  at  the  same  time.  Without  these 
two  operations  I  am  sure  my  profits  have  not  been 
over  six  per  cent.,  and  I  am  inclined  to  think  that 
with  them  they  would  not  be  much  over  six.  And 
yet  you  and  others  have  thought  my  adventures 
have  been  at  least  as  profitable  as  the  average  of 
commercial  operations;  and  they  have  certainly 
been  undertaken  with  some  advantages  over  other 
people  in  having  good  friends  in  China.  But  the 
truth  is  that  competition  is  so  sharp  here  that 
money  must  be  made  either  by  the  most  penurious 
saving  in  fitting  ships  or  storing  goods,  etc.,  etc.,  or 
by  being  constantly  on  the  lookout  and  giving  up 
body  and  soul  to  managing  business.  .  .  .  More 
over,  it  is  my  firm  conviction  that  for  twenty  years 
past  the  average  interest  gained  on  the  whole  capi 
tal  engaged  in  the  China  trade  has  not  exceeded  six 
per  cent. 

"Mr.  Cabot  always  said  that  from  1820  to  1830, 
P.  &  Co.  would  have  made  more  money  if  they  had 
put  their  property  out  at  interest  than  they  did  in 
the  China  trade,  and  I  believe  him ;  and  we  can  see 


TEN  YEARS  OF  BUSINESS  117 

that  since  1830  he  cannot  have  realized  much  over 
six  per  cent.,  taking  into  view  the  Levant's  bad 
voyage. 

"  In  short,  if  you  are  going  to  keep  in  trade,  I 
would  rather  take  six  per  cent,  interest  on  your 
money  than  the  profit  you  will  make. 

"  Theoretically,  you  are  right  in  saying  that  a 
man  in  trade  has  no  fixed  income,  but  in  practice  I 
think  you  will  see  from  the  above  data  that  if  he 
calls  his  income  six  per  cent.,  and  spends  it,  laying 
by  the  profits  over  six  per  cent,  of  one  or  more  suc 
cessful  years  to  meet  the  losses  of  the  bad  year, 
which  comes  in  this  country  every  two  or  three 
years,  he  will  spend  as  much  as  is  consistent  with 
keeping  his  principal  unimpaired." 

My  father,  after  speaking  in  his  notes  of  the 
imprudence  of  a  merchant,  when  reckoning  on  mak 
ing  more  than  six  per  cent.,1  in  the  long  run,  on  his 
invested  capital,  goes  on  to  say :  — 

"  In  looking  over  some  old  letter  books  running 
from  1837  to  1846,  I  note  fluctuations  in  the  rate 
of  interest,  which  sometimes  for  pretty  long  periods 
ran  as  high  as  thirteen  per  cent,  per  annum.  At 
one  time  I  could  not  pass  Colonel  T.  H.  Perkins's 
six  months'  note,  with  my  indorsement,  at  a  lower 
rate  than  eighteen  per  cent,  per  annum." 

He  speaks  of  some  not  very  good  ventures  which 
he  made  at  this  period  (1843-1848)  and  of  his  join 
ing  in  building,  under  Ericsson's  auspices,  the  steam- 

1  My  father's  "six  per  cent."  at  the  period  of  which  he   was 
speaking  would  have  to  be  translated  now  into  four  per  cent,  or  less. 


118  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

ship  Massachusetts,  of  about  750  tons,  one  of  the 
first  Atlantic  steamships ;  which  proved,  however,  too 
small  for  that  service  and  was  sold  to  the  United 
States  and  did  good  work  in  the  Mexican  war. 

Up  to  this  time  he  had  taken  no  active  part  in 
politics,  but  he  writes  as  to  this  :  — 

"  I  see  that  I  spent  something  in  politics,  as  a 
passive  member  of  the  Whig  party,  until  March  7, 
1850,  when  I  left  it.  Among  other  similar  outlays 
was  my  contribution  to  the  Webster  fund,  which 
really  was  largely  influential  in  preventing  Web 
ster's  reaching  the  presidency  by  putting  him  in 
the  position  of  a  candidate  subsidized  by  rich  men. 
Political  subscriptions  were  in  those  days  on  a  small 
scale  and  would  make  a  very  poor  show  compared 
with  modern  ones." 

About  this  time  my  father  first  became  interested 
in  railroads.  I  have  already  given  his  letter  to  his 
brother  Bennet,  stating  his  opinion  of  their  pro 
spects  in  the  United  States  at  an  earlier  date.  Look 
ing  back  in  1884,  he  refers  to  the  gradual  growth 
of  the  American  railroad  system,  up  to  about  5000 
miles  of  track  in  1846,  and  then  says  :  — 

"  My  judgment  was  sound  in  1836  when  I  kept 
out  of  railroads,  but  how  I  came  to  get  in  in  1846, 
ten  years  later,  may  be  worth  telling." 

He  continues,  referring  to  a  relative  who,  though 
absolutely  trustworthy,  was  not  a  brilliant  man  of 
business :  — 

"  I  was  stupid  enough  to  dream  that  he  might 
earn  a  salary  by  being  made  a  figure-head  in  a  rail- 


TEN  YEARS  OF  BUSINESS  119 

road,  which  I  supposed  to  be  a  nominal  place  like 
the  presidency  of  insurance  companies,  then  gen 
erally  given  to  honest  and  reliable,  though  unsuc 
cessful,  merchants,  —  while  the  secretaries  did  the 
work.  About  the  early  days  of  1846,  having  this 
absurd  idea  in  my  head  I  was  led  to  take  an  in 
terest,  perhaps  a  tenth,  in  buying  of  the  State  of 
Michigan  its  quarter-built  road,  at  seventy  cents  on 
the  dollar,  my  copartners  being  John  E.  Thayer, 
Williams  et  al.,  of  Boston,  John  C.  Green,  George 
Griswold  et  aL,  of  New  York,  Erastus  Corning 
and  a  few  others,  of  Albany,  and  above  all  J. 
W.  Brooks  a  young  engineer,  then  in  charge  of  a 
section  of  the  New  York  Central,  I  think  from 
Utica  to  Syracuse.  Little  did  I  dream  of  the  load 
I  was  taking  when  I  accepted  the  office  of  presi 
dent." 

But  he  had  put  his  hand  to  the  plough,  and  after 
that  there  could  be  no  leaving  it  in  the  furrow.  In 
his  notes  he  goes  on  to  tell  of  the  wonderful  capa 
city  of  Mr.  Brooks,  and  how  under  his  general 
management  this  140  miles  of  state  railroad,  "  built 
on  strap  iron  and  lengthwise  timbers,  and,  though 
still  young,  nearly  worn  out  then,"  soon  became, 
in  spite  of  the  stupidest  and  fiercest  opposition  on 
the  part  of  those  most  to  be  benefited  by  it,  a 
thoroughly  well  equipped  line,  and  a  model  for  rail 
road  management,  which  was  then  throughout  the 
country  in  the  crudest  possible  state.  And  then, 
speaking  of  his  own  and  his  brother  directors'  ab 
solute  unconsciousness  of  the  coming  conversion, 


120  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

within  a  few  decades,  of  a  swamp  on  Lake  Michi 
gan  into  a  populous  city,  he  writes  (1884) :  — 

"  Like  a  young  bear,  with  all  my  troubles  before 
me,  I  had  plunged  into  the  railroad  vortex,  and  on 
June  the  llth,  1847,  I  find  by  my  letter  books  that 
I  was  at  Milwaukee  with  the  other  Michigan  Cen 
tral  directors,  we  having  decided  to  take  our  road 
around  the  lake  to  Chicago,  in  stead  of  trusting  to 
New  Buffalo  and  water  carriage  on  the  lake  for  our 
western  outlet.  It  was  on  this  trip  that  W.  B. 
Ogden  drove  us  about  Chicago  and  tried  to  coax  us 
into  rapid  action  by  offering  us  land  in  that  city, 
for  which  he  was  the  selling  agent,  at  low  prices. 
The  land  below  the  harbor  on  the  lake  was  then  a 
sand  drift  and  might  have  been  bought  very  low, 
but  the  cheapest  purchases  would  have  been  the 
wet  prairie  lands  within  a  mile  of  the  hotel  where 
we  stopped,  which  were  offered  us  at  $1.25  per 
acre.  Sheltered  by  our  absurd  prejudices  against 
land  we  were  proof  against  Ogden's  seductions,  and 
I  do  not  think  any  of  us  ever  bought  a  foot  of  land 
in  Chicago  for  ourselves  while  the  road  was  in 
course  of  construction.  My  hotel  bill  of  $125 
would  have  bought  100  acres,  now  worth  $8,000,000 
to  $12,000,000." 

The  ordinary  routine  of  mercantile  and  railroad 
interests  was  now  broken  in  upon  by  the  Irish 
famine,  of  which  he  writes  in  his  notes  :  "  In  1847 
came  the  great  Irish  famine,  the  stories  about  which 
were  more  pitiful  than  those  of  any  other  such 
calamity,  partly,  perhaps,  because  we  heard  them 


TEN  YEARS,  OF  BUSINESS  121 

so  directly  from  the  Irish  around  us,  who  them 
selves  contributed  all  they  could  to  relieve  their 
relations  in  the  old  country;"  and  tells  how  the 
idea  came  to  him  of  borrowing  the  Jamestown 
from  the  United  States  government,  how  she  loaded 
up  in  Boston,  and  under  the  command  of  his  bro 
ther  was  sent  with  her  cargo  to  relieve  the  distress 
in  Ireland,  and  returned  to  the  United  States,  to 
find  another  ship,  borrowed  by  New  York  for  the 
same  purpose,  only  half  loaded ;  to  all  which  I  do  no 
more  than  refer,  as  the  history  has  been  given  at 
length  by  my  uncle  Bennet  in  his  book  of  "  Per 
sonal  Reminiscences,"  already  mentioned. 

It  must  have  been  soon  after  the  Irish  famine 
that  my  father  was  requested  by  one  of  his  New 
York  correspondents,  a  most  conservative  man,  to 
join  him  in  making  an  advance  to  an  English  com 
pany  working  some  iron  property  at  Mount  Savage, 
in  Maryland,  to  enable  them  to  complete  their  blast 
furnaces.  This  was  made,  other  advances  had  to 
follow,  the  English  company  failed,  and  the  busi 
ness  became  one  of  my  father's  most  perplexing 
problems  for  long  afterwards.  Within  my  own 
recollection  it  was  a  constant  source  of  irritation  to 
him ;  he  had  to  be  going  to  Mount  Savage  at  all 
seasons  of  the  year ;  and  when  after  many  years  a 
good  man  of  business  was  found  able  and  willing 
to  take  this  old  man  of  the  sea  off  his  neck  there 
was  a  general  family  rejoicing.  He  refers  at  length 
in  his  notes  to  this  "  episode  in  my  business  life," 
as  he  lightly  calls  it.  Giving  an  account  of  one  of 


122  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

the  journeys  taken  in  the  interest  of  this  enterprise, 
he  writes :  "  We  made  arrangements  for  getting 
from  Mount  Savage  to  Cumberland  on  a  hand  car 
in  the  night.  We  had  a  most  exciting  slide,  very 
fast,  in  the  dark,  nearly  running  over  dogs,  pigs, 
and  men,  by  good  luck  getting  without  an  accident 
into  Cumberland,  where  I  established  myself  in  coat 
and  shawl  in  the  baggage  car  for  the  night."  And 
of  another,  — 

"  I  was  once  called  up  to  Mount  Savage  rather 
late  in  the  fall,  and  in  passing  through  New  York 

I  stopped  to  see  the  celebrated  Dr. ,  who  was 

a  crank  on  the  subject  of  treating  diseases  of  the 
throat  with  nitrate  of  silver.  After  poking  his 
probes  far  down  my  throat  and  examining  the  con 
dition  of  things,  he  said,  '  There  is  nothing  for  it 
but  to  cut  off  both  tonsils  in  your  throat.'  I  asked 
how  long  it  would  take.  '  Five  minutes.'  I  told 
him  to  go  ahead ;  whereupon  he  cut  off  both  tonsils, 
each  as  big  as  the  end  of  my  finger,  and  then 
stopped  the  bleeding  with  nitrate  of  silver,  and 
packed  me  off  to  the  train.  He  had  not  thought  to 
tell  me,  what  I  found  to  be  the  case,  that  my  throat 
was  so  tender  that  I  could  not  get  anything  down 
for  twenty-four  hours,  so  I  had  to  make  the  journey 
on  an  empty  stomach,  after  getting  through  the 
needful  business." 

There  is  nothing  else  in  the  history  of  Mount 
Savage  which  I  think  likely  to  interest  or  amuse 
the  general  reader.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  I  can 
not  refrain  from  giving  the  following  letters  which 


TEN  YEARS  OF  BUSINESS  123 

I  have  chanced  upon,  among  my  father's  papers,  as 
they  present  a  side  of  his  character  —  his  strong 
love  of  a  good  practical  joke  —  which  is  not  brought 
out  in  his  graver  correspondence.  The  occasion 
which  provoked  the  letters  was  this.  His  cousin, 
Dr.  Edward  Bobbins,  of  Boston,  a  man  with  the 
warmest  of  hearts,  but  a  patience  which  had  its  dis 
tinct  limits,  had  learnt  that  Mr.  Corning,  of  Albany, 
had  a  herd  of  very  fine  milch  cows  ;  and  my  father 
had  agreed  to  join  him  in  buying  some  of  these 
animals.  Dr.  Robbins,  however,  contrary  to  my 
father's  advice,  had  insisted  on  inquiring  if  there 
were  no  young  unmarried  German  laborer  in  the 
neighborhood  of  Albany  whom  he  could  hire  per 
manently  and  who  could  begin  work  by  fetching  on 
the  cows.  He  had  deputed  my  father  to  make  the 
inquiry.  This  was  made,  and  my  father  had  re 
ceived  from  New  York  a  genuine  letter  from  a  Mr. 
Whitehouse  strongly  recommending  one  William 
Reynolds,  "  a  good  farming  man  with  a  wife  and 
four  small  children."  My  father  had  seen  at  once 
that  this  did  not  answer  the  good  doctor's  descrip 
tion  of  what  he  wanted;  but  he  could  not  resist 
sending  on  the  letter  to  him,  and  writing  at  its  foot, 
"  Answered  as  follows :  '  Send  Mr.  Reynolds  along 
at  once  with  his  wife  and  children.  Let  them  go 
straight  to  the  house  of  Dr.  E.  H.  Robbins,  Summer 
Street,  who  is  in  great  distress  for  exactly  this 
family.' '  Promptly  had  come  the  following  screed 
from  his  cousin  :  — 


124  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

J.  M.  F.,  — Who  the  devil  is  Mr.  Whitehouse? 
Write  him  that  there  are  more  women  and  children 
in  these  parts  than  food ;  that  you  have  no  use  for 
such  folks.  A  German  emigrant,  worth  five  dollars 
a  month,  is  not  a  man  and  wife  and  five  children. 
Mr.  Whitehouse  be  buttered !  E.  H.  K. 

June  3, 1848. 

Then  my  father,  seeing  the  way  in  which  the 
genuine  letter  had  been  received,  gave  himself  up 
to  the  joke  and  concocted  the  following  letter  (of 
which  there  is  a  rough  copy  in  his  own  handwrit 
ing),  and  sent  it  to  some  correspondent  in  Utica  to 
copy  out,  sign  with  the  name  "  James  S.  White," 
and  post  back  to  himself  in  Milton :  — 

UTICA,  June  2, 1848.    ; 

To  MR.  JOHN  M.  FORBES,  Milton,  Mass. 

Dear  Sir,  —  When  in  Albany  Mr.  Corning  in 
formed  me  that  German  labor  was  in  demand  in 
Boston,  and  that  you  had  sent  to  him  for  one  or 
more  men. 

We  are  overstocked  with  it  here,  and  thinking  it 
doubtful  whether  Mr.  Corning  could  furnish  what 
you  want,  I  have  helped  and  encouraged  two  or 
three  families  to  return  to  Boston  and  have  given 
them  letters  of  introduction  to  you.  They  cannot 
get  over  $8  to  $10  per  month  here,  and  I  feel  con 
fident  from  what  Mr.  Corning  said  that  if  you  don't 
want  them  you  can  easily  provide  them  with  places 
at  better  rates,  and  that  their  families  can  find  em- 


TEN  YEARS  OF  BUSINESS  125 

ployment  in  your  factories,  which  they  cannot  do 
here. 

When  will  you  make  a  dividend  on  the  Michigan 
R.  R.,  —  in  July  or  January  ? 

Yours  truly,  JAMES  S.  WHITE. 

N.  B.  —  I  have  also  furnished  a  poor  Irish  family 
named  Gallagher  with  funds  to  reach  Boston.  The 
father,  who  has  seen  better  days,  is  a  good  farmer, 
and  would  make  a  very  trusty  and  intelligent  su 
perintendent,  as  foreman  of  a  large  farm,  though 
unable  to  work  himself,  owing  to  an  accident  to  one 
of  his  arms.  His  sons  are  stout  lads,  and  his  daugh 
ters  are  willing  to  go  into  service.  I  have  lent 
them  $11,  and  if  you  employ  them  I  wish  you 
would  try  to  get  it  for  me ;  also  the  Mullers'  $8, 
Eucker  $6,  and  Schmidt  $6. 

Yours,  J.  S.  W. 

This,  when  received  from  Utica,  my  father  for 
warded  to  Dr.  Robbins,  who  swallowed  it  all  and 
replied  as  follows  :  — 

MY  DEAR  J.  M.  F.,  —  What  an  infernal  set  of 
correspondents  you  have ;  I  shall  be  very  careful 
how  I  join  you  again  in  any  speculation  ;  the  simple 
request  to  have  the  German  sent  with  the  cows 
ought  not  to  have  imposed  upon  me,  or  even  you, 
the  whole  German  nation,  or  the  surplus  Irish  popu 
lation  of  western  New  York. 

If  this  is  the  way  Michigan  stockholders  use  you, 
deliver  me  from  such  friends ;  if  any  of  them  do 


126  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

come,  I  shall  immediately  enter  a  complaint  to  the 
city  government  (saving  always  one  simple  German 
man),  to  have  them  seized  and  taken  to  Deer  Island, 
to  be  provided  for,  and  Mr.  Whitehouse,  of  New 
York,  and  Mr.  White,  of  Utica,  called  upon  to  re 
spond  with  suitable  bonds  to  the  city  against  the 
parties  becoming  paupers  to  be  supported  by  the 
city ;  as  for  the  cattle  (the  cows)  I  shall  take  my 
cow,  and  deliver  yours,  promising  never  again  to 
enter  into  any  cattle  speculations  with  you ;  there 
is  too  long  a  tail  to  your  conduct. 

Yours  truly,  E.  H.  E. 

BOSTON,  June  5, 1848. 

Then  followed  a  steady  stream  of  letters  of  re 
commendation,  which,  as  I  find  from  my  father's 
indorsement  on  the  bundle  of  real  and  fictitious 
documents,  gradually  brought  home  to  his  cousin's 
mind  the  fact  that  no  crowd  of  immigrants,  German 
or  Irish,  was  on  its  way  to  him  to  be  transferred  to 
Deer  Island.  My  father  notes  that  the  doctor  bore 
no  malice,  and  that  they  continued  the  best  of 
friends. 


CHAPTER  VI 

RAILROADS   AND    OTHER    ENTERPRISES. SLAVERY 

THE  letter  books  of  this  period  (1848)  show  that 
the  difficulties  of  railroad  construction,  and  the 
questions  of  financial  engineering  incident  to  it, 
were  taking  more  and  more  of  my  father's  time. 

In  the  midst  of  this  came  the  discovery  of  the 
California  gold  fields,  which  set  everybody  crazy. 
He  promptly  availed  himself  of  the  new  opening  for 
merchandise,  and  by  his  advice  a  relative  went  out 
to  San  Francisco  and  started  there  as  a  commission 
merchant.  When  settled  there,  he  asked  my  father 
for  the  benefit  of  his  experience  in  this  business,  and 
received  the  following  reply.  It  seems  worth  pre 
serving  for  the  same  reasons  that  led  me  to  print 
the  instructions  to  Captain  Dumaresq,  ten  years 
earlier. 

MILTON,  June  17,  1849. 

MY  DEAR :  I  will,  as  you  request,  touch 

upon  some  of  the  important  points  for  a  commission 
merchant  to  aim  at. 

First.  As  to  correspondence.  Always  look  back 
to  previous  letters  before  sitting  down  to  write; 
then  try  to  give  to  each  constituent  a  continuation 
of  the  history  of  his  business,  studying  as  much 


128  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

conciseness  as  is  consistent  with  exactness  and 
method.  In  quoting  prices  before  actual  sales  take 
place,  be  careful  not  to  lead  to  too  great  expecta 
tions  as  to  net  results.  If  you  name  a  price  on 
arrival  and  don't  get  it,  they  are  very  apt  to  com 
plain  because  you  did  not  sell  on  arrival.  On  the 
other  hand,  if  you  name  too  low  a  price,  owners  are 
apt  to  hear  other  letters  quoting  higher  rates.  I 
suggest,  therefore,  great  caution  in  quoting  prices 
except  from  actual  sales,  and  taking  care  to  make 
at  the  same  time  any  remarks  that  are  applicable  to 
the  matter,  such  as  the  expense  of  landing,  mea 
suring,  weighing,  etc.,  all  which  will  be  high  ;  and 
it  will  probably  be  good  policy,  if  custom  has  not 
too  firmly  fixed  it,  to  make  people  pay  all  these 
charges  exactly  as  they  stand  you  in,  so  that  your 
commission  shall  be  net.  Many  people  would 
grumble  at  a  high  nominal  commission,  who  would 
be  perfectly  satisfied  if  you  charged  them  a  moder 
ate  commission  and  put  among  charges  the  actual 
expense  to  you  of  handling  the  goods,  even  if  the 
sum  of  the  charges  is  higher  than  in  the  other  case. 
Then  instead  of  employing  clerks,  you  may  find 
it  good  policy  to  have  a  weigher,  a  measurer,  a  sur 
veyor  of  lumber,  etc.  Custom  may  very  likely  have 
settled  all  this.  As  to  market  advices,  try  to  give 
actual  sales  and  other  facts,  and  be  cautious  how 
you  give  such  encouragement  as  to  the  future  as 
will  lead  people  to  think  you  are  urging  consign 
ments.  Give  all  the  facts  you  can,  and  all  the  cir 
cumstances  which  bear  upon  the  future :  such  as  the 


RAILROADS  AND  OTHER  ENTERPRISES         129 

tide  of  emigration,  the  effect  of  plentifulness  of 
gold  in  causing  free  expenditure,  the  temporary 
overstock  which  may  at  the  time  cause  dullness; 
but  I  would  not  venture  many  predictions  as  to 
future  prices,  except  where  you  are  very  sure  you 
are  right.  Give  facts,  and  let  those  who  are  to  run 
the  risk  speculate  upon  them.  Of  course  to  me  and 
other  private  friends  no  such  reserve  may  be  needed, 
but  I  refer  to  general  letters :  you  thus  avoid  the 
appearance  of  extravagance,  and  induce  people  to 
rely  upon  your  judgment. 

Second.  As  to  sales  and  accounts.  Always, 
where  it  is  left  to  you,  sell  promptly,  unless  there 
are  very  strong  reasons  for  holding.  Everybody 
who  has  had  foreign  business  gets  disgusted  with 
the  long  delays  before  they  get  their  returns  with 
squared  accounts;  besides  this  feeling,  there  is 
always  expense  incurred  by  holding  and  loss  of 
interest,  and  it  takes  considerable  rise  to  pay  for 
holding  goods  long.  As  a  general  rule,  therefore, 
sell  early  and  make  prompt  returns.  Most  of  those 
who  have  gone  into  so  wild  a  trade  as  that  to  Cali 
fornia  are  speculative  people  and  will  be  glad  of 
their  money  back  in  good  time.  Of  course,  there 
will  be  great  fluctuation  in  California,  and  great 
room  for  judgment  about  holding,  and  my  own 
impression  is  that  it  may  be  best  to  hold  shiploads 
of  goods  till  the  digging  season  is  entirely  over  and 
the  overland  emigrants  from  the  Western  States 
come  down  to  the  coast:  sailors'  and  other  labor 
will  then  be  more  cheap. 


130  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

Third.  Be  very  careful  how  you  give  one  house 
information  as  to  the  business  of  others  intrusted 
to  you.  Even  those  who  like  to  get  such  informa 
tion  distrust  those  who  give  it.  Even  a  sale  that 
everybody  knows  had  better  be  mentioned  in  gen 
eral  terms,  rather  than  especially  referred  to  as  "  a 
sale  made  by  you  of  the  C.'s  cargo."  When  you 
have  sold  nearly  all  a  consignment,  close  the  rest, 
even  at  a  low  price,  in  order  to  send  promptly  the 
sales  and  proceeds,  closed  to  a  point.  I  have  often 
had  a  letter  reach  Forbes,  Forbes  &  Co.,  London, 
with  large  remittances  in  sixty-day  bills,  and  have 
received  accounts  made  within  twenty-four  or  forty- 
eight  hours,  showing  the  discount  of  the  bills  on 
London,  the  purchase  and  remittance  of  bills  on 
Bengal,  and  the  whole  closed  to  a  cent,  and  an 
account  current  returned.  This  system  is  beauti 
ful,  and  any  American  that  can  combine  this  Eng 
lish  method  and  precision  with  Yankee  energy  will 
command  all  the  business  he  can  do.  Keally  good 
commission  houses  are  very  rare,  and  I  know  of 
only  two  or  three  in  the  world.  Mr.  William  Gary 
I  consider  as  good  as  any  other.  The  custom  as 
to  giving  credit  may  be  well  established  before  you 
get  there,  but  it  will  be  more  or  less  modified  as 
trade  increases.  There  never  was  such  a  chance 
for  a  community  to  get  on  without  credit,  and  you 
may  rely  upon  it  that  the  shorter  you  can  make  the 
credit,  even  to  having  sales  made  strictly  for  cash, 
the  better  for  you  in  the  long  run.  Commission 
houses  generally  like  sales  on  credit  because  they 


RAILROADS  AND  OTHER  ENTERPRISES         131 

give  them  a  chance  to  charge  a  guarantee  commis 
sion,  but  people  will  be  all  the  more  ready  to  pay  a 
large  commission  if  there  is  no  discount  for  cash  to 
be  added  to  it.  Besides  this,  if  you  give  credit 
where  none  is  needed,  as  in  California,  it  leads  to  com 
petition  and  inflation.  Each  house  gradually,  for 
the  sake  of  making  sales,  will  sell  on  longer  credit 
to  weaker  customers,  and  the  risk  of  guarantee 
keeps  on  increasing,  while  the  rate  is  stationary  or 
decreasing  as  houses  multiply.  Use  all  your  influ 
ence,  therefore,  to  establish  a  cash  system.  Don't 
try  to  make  money  out  of  storage,  etc.,  etc.  The 
charges  of  this  sort  will  be  enormous,  and  you  had 
better  fortify  yourselves  against  the  complaints 
which  will  follow  by  charging  others  what  you  pay, 
and  telling  them  so.  If  you  undertake  to  own  or 
hire  warehouses  and  make  a  profit  out  of  them,  you 
cannot  add  much  to  the  enormous  prices  you  will 
have  to  pay.  I  should  say,  therefore  :  go  for  mak 
ing  all  charges  on  goods  as  simple  and  small  as  pos 
sible,  and  trust  to  doing  a  large  business  and  laying 
the  foundation  for  its  long  continuance,  rather  than 
trying  to  make  the  most  out  of  what  is  sent  to  you 
at  first. 

Very  truly  yours,  J.  M.  F. 

Nota  Bene.  —  Always  try  to  keep  ahead  of  your 
work  so  as  never  to  be  obliged  to  write  hastily  or 
carelessly,  as  I  too  often  do.  Do  as  I  say,  and  not 
as  I  too  often  do. 

N.  B.  —  The  great  art  of  making  bargains  is  to 
find  out  other  people's  ultimatum  without  letting 


132  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

out  yours,  and  this  can  be  done  with  most  people 
by  letting  them  talk. 

His  relative  acted  on  this  advice  to  some  purpose, 
and  I  am  glad  to  say  with  successful  results. 

It  was  at  this  time  that  my  father  built  and 
sailed  those  clipper  ships  to  which  he  referred  as 
by  comparison  reducing  the  fast  ships  of  an  earlier 
day  to  "  clumps."  They  earned  for  a  time  $40  a 
ton  freight  for  the  passage  round  the  Horn  to  San 
Francisco.  So  every  inch  was  of  value,  and  after 
the  sailing  of  one  of  them  my  father  speaks  of  his 
having  been  "  laid  up  some  days  at  Naushon  with 
leeches  on  his  head,"  and  adds,  "  My  wife  always 
calls  it  my  '  box  fever,'  as  my  mind  was  running  on 
finding  small  boxes  to  fill  up  the  chinks  under  the 
ship's  decks." 

As  to  this  California  trade,  I  find  a  letter  of  my 
father's,  dated  January  4,  1850,  to  the  Hon.  Dan 
iel  Webster,  complaining  of  the  dog  in  the  manger 
inaction  of  the  postal  authorities,  who  would  neither 
themselves  carry  promptly  the  mercantile  corre 
spondence  on  which  the  fate  of  many  million  dollars' 
worth  of  merchandise  depended,  nor  any  longer 
allow  the  express  companies  to  do  the  work.  The 
letter  inclosed  memorials  on  the  subject  to  each 
house  of  Congress. 

In  1852,  during  the  discussions  that  preceded  the 
memorable  expedition  of  Commodore  Perry  to  Japan, 
my  father  writes,  under  date  of  the  28th  of  Febru 
ary,  to  Mr.  William  Appleton,  a  member  of  Congress : 


RAILROADS  AND  OTHER  ENTERPRISES         133 

"  The  newspapers  reiterate  the  charge  that  our 
government  are  fitting  out  a  fleet  to  coerce  the 
Japanese  into  commercial  intercourse.  .  .  .  The 
course  of  these  Japanese  expeditions  is  a  stereotyped 
one.  The  ships  of  war  appear,  and  the  local  man 
darins  are  made  responsible  for  driving  them  off; 
and,  failing  to  persuade  them  to  go,  the  poor 
wretches  draw  a  knife  across  their  throats  or  go 
to  the  executioner;  and  this  tragedy  is  repeated 
until  the  foreigners  see  the  impossibility  of  gaining 
either  glory  or  trade,  and  withdraw  after  getting, 
without  pay,  all  the  supplies  which  the  land  af 
fords. 

"  If  we  have  shipwrecked  sailors  in  captivity,  then 
one  or  two  vessels  of  war  can  accomplish  all  that  is 
to  be  done,  viz.,  make  their  demands  and  get  any 
men  given  up  that  are  there,  and  can  make  the 
government  and  the  mandarins  fully  aware  of  the 
trouble  they  bring  upon  themselves  by  keeping  our 
people  prisoners  in  future ;  but  as  to  forcing  a  com 
mercial  intercourse,  I  do  not  believe  any  man  of 
sense  who  has  been  in  China  will  admit  the  proba 
bility  of  accomplishing  anything  without  pretty 
much  such  a  war  as  John  Bull  got  up  with  China. 

"  A  smaller  force  may  butcher  thousands  of  men 
in  petticoats  and  sink  their  arks,  and  the  officers 
may  call  their  Chinese  junks  '  men  of  war '  and  sing 
pseans  over  their  glorious  victory,  but  the  glory 
will  be  all  the  Navy  will  get  except  fresh  beef  and 
vegetables ;  and  the  conservative  Whig  government 
will  have  the  discredit  of  an  unsuccessful  interven- 


134  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

tion  in  the  affairs  of  a  people  whom  even  John  Bull 
has  been  ashamed  to  attack." 

In  the  early  spring  of  this  same  year  (1852)  my 
father  took  his  first  trip  to  Florida  for  the  benefit 
of  his  health.  He  wrote  to  my  brother  from  Enter 
prise,  under  date  of  March  26  :  — 

MY  DEAR  WILLIE,  —  It  is  now  your  turn  to  have 
a  line ;  but  as  I  have  been  pacing  the  sandy  beach 
by  the  light  of  the  moon  and  stars  until  10.30  p.  M., 
you  must  be  content  with  a  scratch.  The  night  is 
a  lovely  one  —  a  light  breeze  over  the  lake,  but 
hardly  enough  to  make  a  wavelet  on  the  shore; 
thermometer  60  to  70;  sky  and  stars  like  those  of 
the  tropics,  and  all  the  elasticity,  too,  of  the  sea 
air ;  for  we  are  only  about  eighteen  miles  from  the 
Atlantic. 

This  afternoon,  after  dinner,  we  took  my  sail 
boat,  the  Mary,  and  with  a  gentle  breeze  sailed 
over  to  Fort  Mellen  to  see  the  Indian  captives 
brought  in  by  General  Hopkins  and  his  scouting 
party.  We  found  them  all  assembled  in  a  large 
rough  room,  and  quite  a  scene  it  was  !  First,  there 
was  a  poor  suffering  young  woman  who  had  been 
shot  with  seven  buckshot  on  the  thigh,  and  the 
bone  broken  :  she  lay  in  the  midst  on  a  rude  litter, 
upon  which  she  had  been  brought  120  miles  through 
swamps  and  bushes  between  two  ponies ;  she  showed 
no  signs  of  pain,  and  hardly  appeared  to  observe 
anything.  Then  a  family  of  a  mother  and  five 
children,  from  one  and  a  half  years  to  twelve  —  the 


RAILROADS  AND  OTHER  ENTERPRISES        135 

three  youngest,  bright-eyed  little  imps,  entirely  bare 
except  a  cotton  handkerchief  tied  around  the  neck 
and  hanging  behind  —  quite  an  original  way  of 
clothing  a  youngster.  Then  one  or  two  other 
women,  and  two  or  three  older  children  about  thir 
teen  to  fifteen ;  and  finally  a  warrior  lying  in  a  cor 
ner,  with  a  rope  around  his  neck,  which  was  held 
by  a  sentinel  with  a  loaded  gun  in  his  hand  —  his 
legs  and  feet  were  bare  to  the  thighs.  The  elder 
ones  looked  dull  and  rather  stupid;  the  children 
bright  and  happy.  They  were  caught,  a  week  ago 
to-night,  out  of  their  boundary ;  made  prisoners  on 
charge  of  being  cattle  stealers;  but  whether  they 
are  outlaw  Indians,  who  do  not  acknowledge  Billy 
Bowlegs,  or  whether  they  are  a  party  of  the  Sem- 
inole  nation,  is  the  question.  If  the  latter,  we  may 
have  the  whole  tribe  down  upon  the  settlements  for 
vengeance;  but  I  hope  these  are  certain  outlaws 
whom  Billy  would  like  to  have  us  catch  and  send 
West.  The  most  singular  part  of  the  whole  was 
the  troop  of  undisciplined  volunteer  woodmen  who 
brought  them  in  —  amongst  whom  one  or  two  were 
sober  —  the  major  was  lying  drunk  on  the  floor ! 
I  was  introduced  to  General  Hopkins,  a  rough 
farmer-looking  man,  who  might  remind  one  a  little 
of  Peter  Blake,1  also  a  Captain  Jarnegan,  who  is  at 
the  bottom  of  all  the  trouble,  having  taken  two 
prisoners  a  month  or  more  ago,  one  of  whom,  a 
woman,  hung  herself.  He  was  a  rough-looking 
man,  who  is  said  to  be  the  best  Indian  hunter 

1  The  family  fishman  at  Milton. 


136  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

in  Florida,  and  is,  I  fear,  a  mischievous  fellow. 
He  tells  me  it  means  war,  and  that  these  are  Bow- 
leg  Indians.  It  may  lead  to  war,  but  I  think  it 
is  his  fault.  The  rest  of  the  troop  were  a  hard- 
looking,  hard-drinking  set,  and  the  horses,  having 
had  no  corn  for  a  week,  looked  almost  starved. 
The  men  obeyed  no  orders,  and  were  swearing  and 
drinking  and  almost  fighting.  The  steamboat  was 
at  anchor  waiting  for  them,  and  after  seeing  enough 
of  the  Indians  and  playing  with  the  children  and 
giving  them  some  small  change,  I  prepared  to  start, 
when  General  Hopkins  asked  me  to  take  his  Indians 
on  board  the  steamer ;  so  I  took  my  man  Pablo, 
and  took  the  whole  eleven  or  twelve  on  board.  It 
was  lucky  I  was  there  with  my  roomy  boat,  as  the 
poor  woman  would  have  suffered  in  a  canoe,  and  as 
it  was,  she  groaned  dreadfully  as  they  laid  her 
down,  and  looked  wistfully  at  the  water.  If  you 
could  have  been  magnetized  to  see  me  with  my 
cargo,  and  pouring  water  into  the  mouth  of  the 
wounded  woman,  you  would  have  thought  of  R. 
Crusoe  and  his  Island. 

I  got  them  safely  on  board  the  steamer,  and  then 
got  my  party  and  made  sail  for  home,  taking  a 
little  cruise  to  enjoy  the  beautiful  sunset  and  the 
delicious  warm  breeze.  It  was  one  of  those  soft 
sunsets,  with  long  feathering  pink  and  crimson 
clouds,  such  as  is  seldom  seen  out  of  the  tropics. 
It  was  eight  before  we  got  home,  and  now  the  mos 
quitoes  are  killing  me,  so  good-night.  Dr.  Bryant 
thinks  the  woman  will  die. 


RAILROADS  AND  OTHER  ENTERPRISES        137 

28th  March. 

One  of  our  invalids  died  on  Friday,  and  the  other 
is  just  going  now,  and  both  bodies  are  to  go  up 
with  us  in  the  steamer ! 

Yesterday  we  took  another  sail  up  river,  and  I 
hit  three  alligators  and  killed  one ;  they  were  lying 
out  on  the  banks  and  swimming  round  with  their 
heads  out  of  water,  just  as  you  see  frogs  in  a  pond. 

Tuesday  we  caught  a  chameleon  of  a  beautiful 
light  green,  but  he  soon  changed  to  a  dull  brown. 
Dr.  Wyman1  has  him  in  spirits:  he  also  has  my 
alligator  all  dissected,  and  means  to  have  him  set 
up  at  full  length  in  Cambridge. 

Yesterday  Mr.  Schley  came  in  from  his  camp, 
having  killed  six  deer;  the  Indian  troubles  scare 
the  folks  here,  and  so  he  gives  up  hunting  for  this 
year,  and  my  chance  for  a  deer  hunt  is  done.  Mr. 
Schley  has  been  living  out  in  a  tent  most  of  the 
time  for  three  months,  with  only  one  blanket. 

My  father  recalls  no  notable  event  in  his  mer 
cantile  life  during  the  years  immediately  succeeding 
this  first  trip  to  Florida,  except,  perhaps,  his  joining 
Messrs.  John  and  Loring  Cunningham  in  sending 
the  clipper  ship  Flying  Childers  to  Cronstadt, 
whence  she  brought  away  "  the  last  cargo  of  Rus 
sian  goods  before  the  blockade  was  established  by 
the  English  and  French  at  the  time  of  the  Crimean 
War,"  and  thereby  made  quite  a  profitable  trip. 

Captain  White,  who  commanded  her,  told  on  his 

1  Professor  Jeffries  Wyman,  of  Harvard  University. 


138  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

return  a  good  story  of  the  gallant  but  rather  bom 
bastic  admiral  in  command  of  the  blockading  squad 
ron,  who  had  hailed  him  as  he  ran  out,  and  wished 
to  know  what  there  was  to  prevent  his  "  slapping 
down "  with  a  dozen  English  frigates  into  Cron- 
stadt  ?  "  Well/'  the  captain  had  replied,  "  you  can 
slap  them  down  easy  enough,  but  whether  you 
can  slap  them  back  again  is  a  question."  And  he 
used  to  add,  with  a  dry  chuckle,  "  The  admiral  did 
not  try  it." 

My  father  speaks  of  his  having  been  at  this  time 
"  undoubtedly  very  busy  with  the  Michigan  Central 
Railroad,  and  also  with  the  small  roads  which  then 
formed  the  embryo  of  the  Chicago,  Burlington  and 
Quincy,"  and  goes  on  to  tell  of  his  "  very  trying  en 
terprise  of  building  the  Hannibal  and  St.  Joseph  road, 
to  connect  the  Mississippi  and  Missouri  rivers." 

In  1855  he  took  his  first  trip  to  England,  partly 
on  business  and  partly  for  pleasure.  He  writes  to 
my  brothers  William  and  Malcolm :  — 

BRUNSWICK  HOTEL,  Jermyn  Street,  London,  May  17,  1855. 
Chilly  northeast  storm,  but  trying  to  clear  up.  I 
brought  my  story  up  to  Liverpool  in  a  letter  to  the 
girls.  Such  confusion  on  board!  Anchored  in  the 
river.  The  tide  rises  so  much  that  vessels  cannot 
stay  at  the  wharf,  so  they  have  built  immense  stone 
basins  with  gates  towards  the  river.  When  tide  is 
high,  open  come  the  gates,  and  ships  pass  in  and 
out ;  then,  being  shut  up,  the  docks  remain  full  of 
water  and  the  ships  far  above  the  river.  Common 


RAILROADS  AND  OTHER  ENTERPRISES         139 

tides  rise  seventeen  feet.  Well,  you  never  saw  such 
confusion  ;  200  passengers,  each  about  four  trunks 
—  800,  and  two  custom-house  officers  to  examine 
all  in  a  little  crowded  place  on  deck.  After  several 
hours,  got  my  trunks  passed,  and  E.  C.  his,  and  we 
went  on  board  boat  to  go  ashore.  Remembered 
a  forlorn  woman  on  the  steamer  with  a  small  child, 
a  little  like  our  Sarah  ;  my  conscience  smote  me  for 
not  having  helped  her,  so  I  told  E.  C.  I  would  meet 
him  on  shore,  went  back  to  the  Pacific,  found  her 
sitting  in  the  same  cold  place  with  her  child,  wait 
ing  for  her  turn ;  got  a  description  of  her  trunks, 
etc.,  and  went  on  deck  and  hunted  them  up,  lugged 
them  down  myself,  and  put  her  and  her  things  in 
charge  of  the  officer,  and  as  she  could  take  care  of 
herself  thenceforward,  rushed  back  to  the  boat  just 
in  time  to  rejoin  C. ;  felt  not  a  little  relieved. 
Landed  in  the  moist  chilly  atmosphere.  Drove  to 
hotel,  leaving  our  baggage  to  follow  with  the  crowd. 
Ordered  dinner  for  two  ;  fat  landlady,  waiter  in 
gloves.  Presently  a  plated  dish  and  cover,  larger 
than  you  ever  saw,  was  put  before  us,  and  under  it 
about  half  an  ox.  Ordered  a  Hansom  cab,  and 
what 's  more  got  into  one.  We  drove  furiously 
along  the  streets,  and  everybody  stared.  I  thought 
it  must  be  the  only  one  in  Liverpool.  Imagine  a 
red  bodied-chaise,  with  driver  perched  up  behind 
and  overhead,  reins  passing  above  our  heads,  a 
lanky  horse,  and  we  going  like  mad  Drove  about 
town  (Sunday),  and  then  out  to  Greenbank;  did 
not  stop ;  saw  some  rather  pretty  houses,  but  they 


140  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

have  prison-looking  brick  walls,  and  everything  here 
(and  indeed  all  over  England)  looks  and  is  damp. 
Home  at  nine  P.  M.;  baggage  not  come,  but  just 
before  train  started,  at  9.20,  got  it,  and  embarked 
for  Birmingham ;  carriages  instead  of  cars ;  landed 
at  1.20  A.  M.  ;  fine  hotel.  Up  at  seven  A.  M.  ;  drove 
out  to  a  gunsmith's,  William  Greener,  to  make  my 
self  a  present  of  a  gun ;  back  in  time  for  train  at 
nine  o'clock.  Eailroad  one  hour,  and  then  took  a 
fly,  —  so  called  because  it  does  n't  fly,  being  a  heavy 
closed  carry-all ;  hired  it  for  the  day,  and  started  for 
Warwick  Castle,  one  of  the  old  feudal  castles,  built 
800  or  1000  years  ago.  Eight  hundred  years  !  — 
and  no  finer  building  made  yet.  Has  man  improved 
much  in  that  time  ?  I  hope  so.  ... 

It  was  a  fine  sunny  day,  though  chilly  and  with 
passing  clouds.  Took  train  at  Leamington  at  six, 
for  London.  Tuesday,  drove  to  Baring's.  The 
city  seems  like  Boston  twenty  times  bigger  and 
with  a  river  through  it,  and  with  lots  of  old  palaces 
and  churches  sprinkled  about;  the  common  houses 
and  streets  much  like  Boston,  crooked  and  up  and 
down  hill,  crowded,  all  of  the  streets  like  Washing 
ton  Street  on  a  busy  day.  Found  Mr.  Ashburner 
and  Beckwith,  who  took  us  to  see  Windsor  Castle 
and  Park,  and  a  fine  old  country  place,  "Gilwood; " 
a  lawn  with  good  trees  and  a  park.  Windsor  Park 
was  made  by  the  Norman  kings,  who  destroyed  two 
thousand  villages  to  make  hunting  grounds  sixteen 
miles  across ;  now  open  to  the  public  for  drives  and 
walks.  Lot  of  poor,  wet,  tame-looking  deer  like 


SLAVERY  141 

uncomfortable  sheep,  smaller  than  our  deer  and 
tamer  than  Naushon  sheep. 

We  took  at  the  station  an  open  carriage  with  a 
postilion  in  tights  and  spurs ;  home  by  rail,  and 
dined  at  Mr.  Ashburner's  club.  Home,  the  spirit 
ualist,  here,  and  is  engaged  days  ahead  with  the 
fashionable  people,  who  have  got  hold  of  him 
through  the  Lawrences. 

Second  day  in  London.  .  .  .  Went  to  House  of 
Commons.  You  enter  a  fine  old  hall  built  by  Wil 
liam  the  Conqueror,  lofty  and  gothic.  The  new 
houses  are  not  much,  and  the  members,  with  their 
hats  on,  look  ordinary  enough ;  the  speaker  and 
clerk  sat  in  their  wigs ;  stayed  five  minutes.  The 
wealth  and  magnificence  of  London  is  incalculable, 
but  this  climate  is  perfectly  intolerable,  raining 
every  five  minutes,  and  chilly  and  cold.  Read 
"  Bleak  House :  "  the  opening  account  of  Lady 
Deadlock  and  the  country  seat  seems  like  a  descrip 
tion  of  all  the  weather  here.  On  Wednesday,  Mr. 
Edward  Baring  takes  us  to  the  great  Derby  race, 
fifteen  miles  off.  He  offered  to  take  us  in  his  mo 
ther's  carriage.  We  take  a  hamper  of  provisions 
and  sit  all  day ;  see  Dickens's  description  of  the  Fat 
Boy.  And  now,  darlings,  with  love  to  all,  I  must 
say  good-by. 

While  in  England  my  father  must  have  made  the 
personal  acquaintance  of  Nassau  Senior,  the  polit 
ical  economist  and  drafter  of  the  modern  English 
poor-law,  formerly  Professor  of  Political  Economy 


142  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

at  Oxford,  with  whom  he  had  already  been  in  busi 
ness  correspondence  for  some  years.  They  had 
some  discussions  on  the  burning  question  of  the 
day,  —  as  is  clear  from  the  letter  which  follows.  It 
is  curious  to  note  how  little  the  nearness  of  the 
coming  storm  was  realized,  —  though  the  hand  of 
the  writer  was  pretty  carefully  held  on  the  public 
pulse.  He  at  least  felt  as  Lowell  afterwards  said :  — 

"  Ef  you  want  peace,  the  thing  you  've  gut  to  du 
Is  jes  to  show  you  're  up  to  fightin'  tu." 

TO  NASSAU  WILLIAM   SENIOK. 

STEAMSHIP  AMERICA,  July  3, 1855. 

MY  DEAR  SIR,  —  I  have  read  your  article  in  the 
"  Edinburgh "  with  much  interest,  and  stiU  more 
with  astonishment  at  your  intimate  acquaintance 
with  American  affairs.  .  .  » 

There  is  one  error  or  misconception  into  which 
you  have  fallen  in  regard  to  the  existing  opposition 
to  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law,  and  especially  to  the 
excitement  in  Boston  last  year  upon  the  surrender 
of  Burns.  You  ascribe  it  all  to  Mrs.  Stowe's  book, 
and  in  this  you  do  injustice  to  the  progress  which 
sound  opinions  had  made,  even  in  the  conservative 
portions  of  the  North,  before  her  book  appeared. 

It  is  notorious  that  after  Webster  made  his  7th 
March,  1850,  speech,  which  carried  the  Fugitive 
Bill  and  its  kindred  measures,  he  would  not  have 
had  the  vote  of  one  third  of  his  own  party  for  any 
office  in  the  gift  of  the  people  of  his  adopted  State, 
Massachusetts.  Immediately  after  the  passage  of 


SLAVERY  143 

the  Bill  I  was  present  at  the  following  conversation 
between  a  Southerner  and  a  conservative  Boston 
merchant :  — 

Southerner.  "Now,  my  friend,  we  shall  have 
quiet !  The  South  has  got  her  rights,,  and  there  is 
an  end  of  agitation." 

Northern  Merch*.  "  You  are  all  wrong.  Agita 
tion  has  only  begun,  unless  your  people  avoid  exer 
cising  their  rights  and  use  them  simply  as  a  bug 
bear  to  keep  their  slaves  at  home ;  for  the  new  law 
will  never  be  enforced  except  at  such  cost  that  it  will 
be  far  cheaper  for  the  master  to  let  his  slaves  run." 

Southerner.  "  Then  the  Union  is  dissolved.  The 
law  must  be  executed  in  good  faith  and  made  to 
work  practically,  or  we  leave  you." 

Northerner.  "  Good-by,  then !  the  sooner  you  set 
your  house  in  order  the  better,  for  our  people  will 
never  allow  that  law  to  be  executed  except  in  iso 
lated  cases  !  " 

The  above,  I  am  sure,  gives  a  correct  view  of  the 
opinions  of  those  who  know  the  state  of  public  feel 
ing  at  the  North,  —  and  the  result  had  been  in 
accordance  with  those  opinions  even  before  Mrs. 
Stowe's  book  appeared.  Even  those  at  the  North 
who  approved  of  the  law  expected  to  see  it  merely 
held  in  terrorem  over  the  blacks,  as  a  preventive 
of  escape.  .  .  . 

True  the  book  of  Mrs.  Stowe  had  been  stimu 
lating  the  masses  throughout  the  country,  but  the 
Nebraska  iniquity,  just  then  perpetrated,  took  away 
the  balance-wheel  which  had  existed,  and  was  the 


144  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

immediate  cause  of  the  tremendous  excitement  which 
pervaded  the  usually  quiet  town  of  Boston  on  2d 
June,  1854.  .  .  . 

In  looking  over  my  files  of  American  papers  I  see 
that  Massachusetts  has  passed  a  bill  "  for  the  pro 
tection  of  personal  liberty/'  which  it  is  supposed  will 
render  the  Fugitive  Bill  entirely  nugatory  within 
her  borders.  It  is  much  criticised  by  the  conserva 
tive  press  as  radical  and  dangerous,  but  I  have  not 
the  least  fear  of  any  mischief  coming  from  it ;  if  it 
really  goes  too  far,  our  people  will  correct  it  in  time 
to  avoid  revolution.  I  have  not  seen  it,  but  will  get 
it  and  send  it  to  you  herewith.  .  .  . 

The  real  danger  will  come,  if  ever,  when  the 
North,  strong  and  growing,  shall  wake  up  to  find 
itself  bound  through  corruption  and  fraud  to  the 
will  of  the  aristocratic  minority.  Then  the  North 
may  insist  upon  being  put  back  where  they  were, 
even  at  the  cost  of  revolution.  The  Southern  poli 
ticians  have  undoubtedly  been  aiming  at  securing 
enough  new  slave  States  to  give  them  a  majority  in 
the  Senate,  which  would  then  become  practically  a 
House  of  Lords,  with  a  veto  on  all  legislation  and 
with  a  claim  to  a  large  share  of  the  patronage  of 
government. 

Apart  from  the  moral  question,  and  on  the  mere 
lower  ground  of  expediency  and  statesmanship,  can 
there  be  a  doubt  in  any  sane  mind  that  the  safety 
of  the  North  and  of  the  Union  consists  in  a  firm 
resistance  to  the  further  extension  of  slavery  or  the 
increase  of  slave  States  beyond  what  the  Constitu 
tion  in  its  strictest,  clearest  sense  calls  for  ? 


SLAVERY  145 

Early  in  the  fall  of  1855  the  Barings  (acting,  as 
it  seemed,  for  Louis  Napoleon,  though  this  was 
never  acknowledged)  began  to  feel  the  way  towards 
the  purchases  of  wheat  and  flour  which  later  in 
the  year  were  undertaken  for  their  account  by  J.  M. 
Forbes  &  Co.  This  appears  from  the  following 
letter  of  September  22,  1855,  from  my  father  to 
his  cousin,  Mr.  Kussell  Sturgis,  who  was  then  a 
partner  in  Baring  Bros.  &  Co. 

MY  DEAR  STURGIS,  —  ...  I  notice  that  you  are 
somewhat  disturbed  at  the  idea  of  buying  our  bread- 
stuffs  at  high  prices,  but  it  is  an  ill  wind  that  blows 
nobody  good,  and  it  will  stimulate  us  here.  I  only 
hope  you  will  not  send  us  large  amounts  of  stocks 
to  sell.  .  .  .  Our  crops  are  but  just  coming  to  mar 
ket  and  have  hardly  begun  to  have  their  effect  on 
commerce.  Upon  our  Michigan  Central  road,  for 
instance,  the  receipts  of  wheat  and  flour  are  far 
behind  last  year,  while  our  receipts  generally  are 
twenty-five  to  thirty  per  cent,  additional.  This  is 
partly  owing  to  the  wet  weather  at  the  harvest, 
making  much  of  the  Michigan  wheat  unsafe  to 
grind  or  ship  until  very  thoroughly  dry,  and  the 
lakes  and  canal  will  probably  close  with  very  large 
supplies  of  grain  left  in  the  country,  although  from 
this  time  forward  all  the  avenues  of  transportation 
will  be  fully  occupied.  There  are  various  ridicu 
lous  stories  about  the  governments  of  Europe  send 
ing  here  to  buy  bread.  If  the  French  government 
really  wanted  to  help  fill  the  bellies  of  their  people, 


146  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

they  could  do  it  easier  than  by  buying  wheat.  Let 
them  employ  Philippe's  head  cook  to  make  Johnny- 
cakes  fashionable  and  palatable,  and  to  mix  about 
the  same  proportion  of  Indian  meal  with  their 
wheaten  bread  that  we  often  do  here  from  pre 
ference  ;  open  public  bakeries  and  confectioneries 
on  this  plan  in  the  principal  cities,  and  instead  of 
flour  or  wheat,  import  Indian  and  other  cheaper 
meals  to  eke  out  the  French  wheat  crop.  If  the 
French  nation  could  be  taught  to  eat  from  economy 
as  large  a  proportion  of  Indian  meal  as  my  family 
eat  from  choice  and  for  health,  millions  of  dollars 
might  be  saved  and  lots  of  hungry  bellies  filled. 
As  it  is,  I  suppose  we  must  put  up  flour  here,  and 
thus  force  our  own  people  to  eat  our  own  coarse 
grains ;  and  in  this  way  I  believe  we  can  keep 
you  all  comfortable  until  next  harvest  brings  you 
round.  .  .  .  Always  yours, 

J.  M.  F. 

My  father,  referring  to  the  transaction  which  fol 
lowed,  says :  "  Prices  were  still  low  here,  but  it  re 
quired  good  management  to  conceal  the  ownership 
of  the  breadstuffs  and  to  give  the  operations  the 
appearance  of  private  commercial  speculations.  .  .  . 
Our  secret  was  so  well  kept  that  nobody  dreamed 
of  any  government  being  behind  us,  and  some  of 
the  agents  we  employed  to  buy  suffered  very  seri 
ously  by  going  on  buying  on  their  own  account 
after  our  order  stopped."  Writing  in  1884  of  this 
transaction,  and  without  reference  to  his  books,  he 


SLAVERY  147 

says  that  the  purchases  of  provisions  may  have 
amounted  to  considerably  over  $5,000,000,  and  that 
this  fact  and  the  shipment  of  the  whole  of  them  to 
France  left  no  doubt  in  his  mind  that  they  were 
for  the  French  government ;  and  he  adds :  "  I  am 
not  sure  whether  the  operation  proved  a  good  one 
for  the  emperor,  but  it  certainly  helped  to  tide  over 
the  danger  of  a  hard  famine  in  France." 

It  was  in  order  to  get  through  the  extra  work 
thus  caused  that  he  took  into  his  office  Charles 
Russell  Lowell,  of  whom  more  will  be  seen  later  on. 
At  their  first  interview  in  New  York  he  was  strongly 
attracted  to  him,  and,  as  will  be  seen,  the  attrac 
tion  continued  and  increased  till  the  day  of  Lowell's 
death. 

In  March,  1856,  the  press  of  work  caused  by  the 
shipments  of  breadstuffs  having  abated,  my  father 
was  about  to  take  a  trip  to  Florida  and  Cuba  with 
my  brother  Malcolm,  then  a  small  boy.  Finding 
that  Lowell's  doctor  wished  him  to  go  abroad  for 
his  health,  he  proposed  that  he  should  join  them, 
and  they  made  the  trip  together,  Lowell  going 
afterwards  in  a  sailing  ship  to  Europe  from  New 
Orleans.  They  visited  the  "  Carolina  "  sugar  plan 
tation  near  Cienfuegos  in  Cuba,  the  picture  of 
which,  though  it  was  a  humane  plantation,  with  the 
whip  seldom  used,  was  always  a  very  painful  one, 
as  it  rose  in  my  father's  mind  in  after  years.  It 
was  on  his  return  through  South  Carolina  from  this 
trip  that  he  made  the  acquaintance  of  Mr.  Hamilton 
Cowper,  having  first  heard  of  him  from  the  lady  of 


148  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

a  house  in  which  he  had  been  staying,  who  had 
been  rescued  years  before,  with  her  daughter,  then 
a  baby,  by  Mr.  Cowper  at  great  risk  to  himself, 
from  the  wreck  of  the  steamer  Pulaski.  This  gal 
lantry  naturally  inclined  my  father  to  make  friends 
with  him,  and  the  pleasant  relations  then  estab 
lished  continued  after  his  return  home. 

During  the  political  campaign  of  the  following 
autumn  (1856),  which  ended  in  the  election  of 
Buchanan  to  the  presidency,  my  father  wrote  to  Mr. 
Cowper,  with  the  pretext  of  asking  his  opinion  as 
to  the  possible  employment  of  Chinese  in  Florida, 
but  chiefly,  as  he  says  in  his  notes,  "  with  the  view 
of  learning  whether  the  all-absorbing  question  of 
the  day  was  still  so  far  short  of  being  a  '  burning ' 
one  as  to  admit  of  two  men  of  the  North  and  South 
respectively,  conservative  and  presumably  patriotic, 
approaching  the  subject  with  cool  minds  and  arriv 
ing  at  some  practicable  compromise  which  might  be 
recommended  to  their  friends  on  either  side." 

To  this  letter,  he  received  just  after  the  election, 
the  following  reply  :  — 

J.   HAMILTON  COWPER  TO   J.   M.   FORBES. 

NEAR  DARIEN,  November  6,  1856. 

MY  DEAR  SIR,  —  Your  letter  of  September  18 
reached  my  residence  soon  after  my  departure  on  a 
visit  to  the  up  country,  which  will,  I  hope,  be  a 
sufficient  explanation  of  the  long  delay  in  my  an 
swer  to  it. 

I  have  read  and  considered  attentively  the  scheme 


SLAVERY  149 

of  your  Chinese  correspondent  to  establish  a  colony 
of  laborers  from  that  country  in  Florida.  My  pre 
sent  impressions  are  that  it  is  not  feasible.  I  am 
not  sufficiently  informed  as  to  the  amount  of  work 
that  the  Chinese  are  capable  of  performing  to  en 
able  me  to  compare  the  result  of  their  labor  with 
that  of  the  negro  slave ;  but  I  suspect,  with  the 
disadvantages  of  enhanced  wages,  and  the  absence 
of  compulsory  labor,  that  the  balance  will  be  in 
favor  of  negro  labor.  In  employing  a  large  num 
ber  of  Irish  and  negroes  on  the  Brunswick  Canal, 
I  obtained  more  work  from  the  latter  than  the 
former,  at  a  much  smaller  cost.  I  know  too  little 
of  the  laws  of  Florida  to  say  whether  the  introduc 
tion  of  free  Chinese  would  in  any  respect  be  an  in 
fraction  of  them  ;  but  I  believe  it  would  not,  and  I 
believe  also  that  a  strong  prejudice  would  be  created 
against  such  a  colony.  Enlightened  patriotism  will 
revolt  at  the  introduction  of  an  inferior  race  of  free 
men  ;  and  local  prejudice  will  suspect  an  attempt  to 
attack  the  institution  of  slavery.  The  success  of 
such  an  enterprise  will  depend  on  keeping  the  col 
onists  together,  and  at  low  wages.  In  a  country 
like  this,  in  which  labor  is  in  demand  and  well  paid, 
this  will  I  think  be  impossible.  Contracts  for  a 
term  of  time  may  be  made,  but  they  would  not  be 
respected  or  enforced.  The  intelligent  and  useful 
will  soon  abandon  the  colony  in  search  of  higher 
wages  and  a  more  independent  position ;  and  the 
enterprise  will  be  left  to  drag  on  with  the  drones. 
Many  years  ago,  W.  Trumbull  brought  over  a  col- 


150  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

ony  of  Minorcans  to  Smyrna  (south  of  St.  Augus 
tine),  the  members  of  which  were  indented  for  a 
term  of  service.  The  establishment  was  soon  broken 
up  in  consequence  of  the  infidelity  of  the  laborers 
to  their  contracts. 

I  thank  you  for  the  communication  of  Cecil  on 
the  exciting  question  of  the  day.  It  is  written 
with  great  elegance  and  ability,  and  he  enforces 
with  great  strength  his  own  views.  I  demur  to 
two  of  his  positions,  which  demurrer,  if  sound,  is 
fatal  to  his  conclusions.  First,  I  deny  that  Con 
gress  has  any  constitutional  right  to  say  to  a  future 
sovereign  State  that  it  shall  be  curtailed  of  a  power 
possessed  by  other  States,  viz. :  to  decide  for  itself 
whether  it  shall  or  shall  not  establish  slavery.  The 
union  of  the  States  is  of  equals  and  not  of  inferiors. 
I  deny  the  power  of  Congress  to  exclude  a  part  of 
the  Union  from  equal  participation  in  common  pro 
perty.  Secondly,  I  deny  that  a  majority  has  a  right 
to  govern  irrespective  of  the  Constitution,  and  of 
the  rights  secured  by  the  great  principles  of  justice. 
An  ex  part e  assertion  of  constitutional  right  is  no 
ground  for  the  enforcement  of  majority  prejudices. 
This  subject  is  a  delicate  one  for  discussion  between 
the  North  and  the  South,  and  I  usually  avoid  it  as 
unprofitable.  There  is  one  practical  view  which 
should  be  clearly  presented  to  the  whole  country, 
which  is,  the  unavoidable  result  of  any  attempt  to 
enforce  the  Northern  views  on  the  subject  of  the 
exclusion  of  slavery  from  the  Territories.  Be 
assured,  my  dear  sir,  that  a  dissolution  of  the  Union 


SLAVERY  151 

is  inevitable  whenever  the  free-soil  principles  of  the 
North  shall  in  any  instance  be  enforced.  If  that 
principle  be  dearer  to  the  North  than  the  Union, 
let  it  avail  itself  of  its  numerical  superiority  and 
enforce  it;  but  let  it  not  deceive  itself  into  the 
belief  that  any  fear  of  consequences  will  deter  the 
Southern  States  from  meeting  the  issue.  I  love 
the  Union,  and  rank  among  the  conservatives  of  the 
South,  but  I  am  prepared  for  a  dissolution  of  our 
government  rather  than  yield  a  right  which  is 
essential  to  the  very  existence  of  the  South.  The 
result  of  the  recent  election  of  president  is  unknown 
to  me.  If  in  favor  of  Mr.  Buchanan,  I  shall  breathe 
more  freely,  as  Mr.  Fremont's  success  will,  I  appre 
hend,  be  the  knell  of  the  Union.  I  rejoice  that 
sectional  feelings  have  still  no  influence  in  private 
relations,  and  that  I  still  hold  my  Northern  friends 
with  the  feelings  of  respect  with  which  I  am, 
Yours  most  truly, 

J.  HAMILTON  COWPER. 

This  letter  must  have  convinced  my  father  that  it 
was  impossible  for  his  correspondent  and  himself  to 
arrive  at  any  point  near  an  agreement  on  the  vexed 
question,  and  his  reply  which  follows  could  only 
have  been  written  with  the  view  of  showing  clearly 
and  once  for  all  the  standpoint  of  the  North  and 
West,  from  which  no  bullying  or  cajoling  could 
make  them  budge,  viz. :  that  slavery  had  at  least  to 
be  content  with  what  it  had  got  in  the  way  of  ter 
ritory,  and  must  not  "  ask  for  more." 


152  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

J.  M.   FORBES  TO  J.   HAMILTON  COWPER. 
(Private.)  BOSTON,  December  4,  1856. 

MY  DEAR  SIR,  —  Your  favor  of  the  6th  ulto. 
reached  me  in  due  course  and  I  am  much  obliged 
for  your  valuable  information  and  suggestions  in 
regard  to  Chinese  labor  in  Florida,  which  will  prob 
ably  nip  that  scheme  in  the  bud  or  reduce  it  to  a 
very  safe  experiment. 

I  thank  you  too  for  your  frankness  in  regard  to 
the  great  question  of  the  day.  You  say  truly  that 
it  is  too  delicate  for  profitable  discussion  among 
friends,  but  this  makes  it  only  the  more  important 
that  the  real  state  of  public  opinion,  outside  of 
partisan  politics,  should  be  better  known  than  it  is. 

I  had  supposed  that  there  existed  a  party  of  great 
latent  strength  at  the  South  who  value  the  Union 
much  more  than  they  do  the  extension  of  the  insti 
tution  of  slavery,  and  who  would  put  forth  their 
strength  whenever  any  real  danger  came.  Knowing 
how  far  you  are  above  being  influenced  by  any 
desire  for  office,  or  for  any  popular  extravagance,  I 
take  it  as  the  very  worst  indication  of  the  coming 
storm  to  find  that  you  are  not  on  that  side  of  the 
question.  Regretting  deeply  that  it  is  so,  I  thank 
you  for  the  warning,  which  coming  on  top  of  the 
election  of  Mr.  Buchanan  assures  me  that  we  are 
doomed  to  continued  agitation  until  I860,  and  then 
to  the  first  real  experiment  of  the  strength  of  our 
confederacy.  You  have  thrown  a  gloomy  shadow 
over  the  hopes  I  had  entertained  of  help  for  the 


SLAVERY  153 

Union  from  the  conservatism  of  the  South  ;  but  it 
is  far  better  to  know  the  truth,  and  I  owe  it  to  you 
in  return  to  tell  you  what  seems  to  me  the  state  of 
public  opinion  here.  Upon  the  only  real  point  of 
difference  suggested  by  you,  —  which  indeed  is  the 
only  real  issue  between  the  North  and  South,  viz. : 
the  constitutionality  of  the  principle  of  the  Jefferson 
Proviso,  —  there  is  hardly  any  division  of  opinion 
at  the  North  excepting  among  the  partisans  of 
squatter  sovereignty;  and  the  experience  in  Kan 
sas  has,  I  think,  reduced  the  advocates  of  this  doc 
trine  to  a  small  minority.  We  are  then  all  united 
here  in  the  opinion  that  either  Congress  or  the 
squatters  (some  looking  to  one  and  some  to  the 
other)  have  a  clear  right  to  prohibit  slavery  in  the 
territories  from  the  moment  that  settlement  begins. 
We  have  been  brought  up  in  the  faith  that  this  was 
settled  constitutional  doctrine,  held  as  it  has  been 
by  all  the  men  we  are  accustomed  to  look  upon  as 
great  authorities  at  the  North,  and  by  many  of 
your  own  best  men,  and  confirmed  too  by  the  adop 
tion  of  the  Ordinance  of  1787,  at  the  very  time 
when  the  Constitutional  Convention  was  in  session, 
as  also  by  the  adoption  of  the  Missouri  compromise 
when  Mr.  Calhoun  was  a  member  of  the  Cabinet. 

But  it  is  not  my  purpose  to  argue.  I  only  mean 
to  state  the  almost  universal  conviction  at  the  North 
that  the  restriction  of  slavery  is  as  clearly  within 
the  constitutional  rights  of  the  majority  as  any  of 
our  admitted  and  daily  exercised  rights ;  and  the 
only  real  difference  of  opinion  here  is  as  to  the 


154  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

expediency  of  exercising  that  right.  Mr.  Webster, 
with  a  respectable  body  of  Whigs  and  a  large  body 
of  Democrats,  was,  in  1850,  against  exercising  that 
right  unnecessarily ;  but  it  is  a  very  solemn  convic 
tion  that  there  is,  as  nearly  as  possible,  unanimity 
here,  since  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  compromise, 
in  favor  of  exercising  that  (real  or  supposed)  right 
at  all  hazards  whenever  practically  necessary  to  pre 
vent  the  extension  of  slavery  into  territories  now 
free. 

Beyond  and  above  all  this,  the  conviction  is  being 
daily  forced  upon  the  North  that  the  designs  of  the 
South  do  not  stop  with  introducing  slavery  into  our 
own  territories,  but  that  the  question  to  be  settled 
in  Kansas  is  whether  the  whole  power  of  the  con 
federacy  shall  be  exercised  for  buying  or  conquer 
ing  all  the  territory  and  islands  north  of  Panama 
for  the  mere  extension  of  your  institution.  Some 
of  your  more  bold  and  ultra  men  plainly  avow 
this  intention  so  far  as  Cuba,  Mexico,  and  Central 
America  are  concerned;  and  the  Cincinnati  plat 
form  is  certainly  so  framed  as  to  warrant  this  appre 
hension  on  the  part  of  the  North. 

Mr.  Buchanan,  if  aided  by  the  conservative  men 
of  the  South,  may  allay  the  apprehension  that  the 
South  seek  anything  more  than  the  assertion  of 
their  (supposed  or  real)  right  to  take  their  slaves 
into  our  own  territories,  but  even  if  he  does  succeed 
thus  far,  it  is  my  belief  that  the  issue  has  been  so 
sharply  defined  to  be  a  struggle  for  political  power 
between  the  North  and  South,  that  it  is  too  late  to 


SLAVERY  155 

change  it  until  one  or  the  other  side  yield,  or  until 
we  separate  and  begin  again  on  a  new  basis.  I 
believe  that  the  public  mind  in  the  non-slavehold- 
ing  States  has  been  in  a  state  of  revolution  for  some 
years,  but  of  active  change  since  the  passage  of  the 
Nebraska  Bill,  and  that  the  change  will  go  on  dur 
ing  the  next  four  years  in  a  progressive  ratio,  until 
in  1860  there  will  be  not  the  ghost  of  a  chance  for 
any  man's  getting  an  electoral  vote  in  the  North 
and  West  who  is  not  sharply  opposed  to  the  exten 
sion  of  slavery  at  home  and  abroad ;  and,  moreover, 
that  it  will  take  all  the  strength  of  the  moderate 
men  of  the  North  to  draw  the  line  there  —  to  keep 
within  the  Kepublican  platform  of  1856. 

It  is  hard  for  you  to  appreciate  justly  our  position 
here  without  knowing  more  of  the  parties  who  rule 
the  North  than  you  can  know  through  the  expres 
sion  given  us  by  the  press,  the  pulpit,  and  the  ros 
trum. 

I  will  try  to  sketch  the  elements  that  now  move 
the  Northern  mind.  The  abolitionists  1  have  never 
had  much  direct  influence,  and  they  have  been  los 
ing  ground  for  several  years ;  they  may  be  thrown 
entirely  out  of  account.  The  conservative  men  of 
both  political  parties  have  hitherto  believed  that 
they  could  occupy  a  common  ground  with  those 
of  the  South  in  advocating  the  policy  of  letting 
slavery  alone  where  it  existed,  and  still  retain  their 

1  This  refers  to  their  power  as  a  separate  organization.  My 
father,  as  has  been  seen,  though  opposed  to  their  extreme  views  as 
to  the  destruction  of  the  Union,  was  yet  much  influenced  by  them. 
—  ED. 


156  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

proper  influence  with  the  masses ;  but  the  issue  at 
last  made  of  slavery  extension  leaves  them  no  choice 
between  opposition  to  it  and  political  annihilation. 
They  have  very  extensively  joined  the  Fremont 
party,  and  unless  the  issue  can  be  changed  they 
must  continue  to  go  there,  until  the  remainder  who 
take  the  Southern  side  becomes  so  small  as  just  con 
veniently  to  fill  the  federal  offices  and  the  easy- 
chairs  of  their  drawing-rooms  and  clubs.  But  it  is 
the  masses,  the  democracy  (call  it  by  what  name 
we  may),  which  must  rule ;  and  they  are  hopelessly 
against  the  Southern  policy,  whether  it  be  called 
the  extension  of  slavery,  or  the  establishment  of  a 
balance  of  power  between  the  two  sections. 

Buchanan  owes  his  Northern  success  to  the  Fill- 
more  diversion,  and  to  the  name  of  Democrat  which 
in  certain  slow-moving  regions,  like  parts  of  Penn 
sylvania,  still  retained  its  power,  under  the  repre 
sentations  of  his  partisans  that  he  was  for  popular 
sovereignty  (squatter)  and  for  free  Kansas.  But, 
my  dear  sir,  depend  upon  it  the  Northern  demo 
cracy  can  never  again  be  depended  upon  for  a 
Southern  alliance.  Fifteen  or  twenty  years  ago  the 
abolition  men  and  women  were  mobbed  everywhere, 
and  their  lives  endangered  and  their  halls  burned ; 
now  the  mob  are  all  the  other  way,  but  it  is  not 
that  they  have  become  abolitionists.  The  wrong  of 
slavery  preached  to  them  from  the  pulpit,  the  waste 
and  inexpediency  of  slavery  reiterated  to  them  by 
the  press,  doubtless  weigh  with  the  masses,  but  all 
other  influences  sink  into  insignificance  compared 


SLAVERY  157 

with  that  brought  to  bear  for  two  years  past,  and 
especially  during  the  past  four  months  from  the 
stump  and  by  the  tremendous  machinery  of  the  cam 
paign  press,  to  convince  the  laboring  classes  here  of 
the  aristocratic  nature  of  the  institution  of  slavery ; 
of  the  small  number  of  slaveholders  compared  with 
the  white  population  North  and  South,  and  of  the 
coming  issue  being  whether  this  small  class  (sup 
posed  to  rule  the  South)  shall  own  half  the  Senate 
and  shall  use  the  national  arm  to  extend  their  in 
stitution  at  home  and  abroad. 

So  long  as  there  is  a  pretext,  a  color,  for  holding 
up  to  the  people  such  an  issue,  there  can  be  but 
one  result. 

The  masses  in  all  countries  can  be  roused  upon 
two  points,  their  nation's  interests  and  their  own 
prejudices ;  and  if  there  is  anything  in  this  coun 
try  fixed,  it  is  the  prejudice  against  aught  which 
has  the  appearance  even  of  aristocracy.  Are  you 
entirely  free  from  danger  from  this  prejudice  at 
home? 

Unless  then  some  strange  and  almost  impossible 
change  takes  place  in  Mr.  Buchanan's  policy  from 
that  of  his  predecessor,  you  may  count  upon  the 
popular  vote  of  1860  being  against  the  increase  of 
Southern  power  with  as  much  certainty  as  you 
could  upon  its  being  thrown  against  the  reestablish- 
ment  in  our  territories  of  the  feudal  institutions  of 
the  Middle  Ages.  I  have  said  far  more  than  I  in 
tended,  but  I  have  not  that  power  of  condensation 
which  you  so  happily  possess. 


158  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

I  cordially  respond  to  your  hope  that  difference 

of  opinion  as  to  public  policy  may  never  interfere 

with  friendly  private  relations  between  individuals 

of  the  North  and  South,  and  am  with  great  respect, 

Yours  very  truly,  J.  M.  FORBES. 

P.  S.  —  In  reading  over  what  I  have  hastily  writ 
ten  I  see  that  I  have  omitted  to  explain  what  I 
mean  by  the  danger  from  Mr.  Buchanan's  election. 
Any  attempt  on  his  part  to-  strengthen  the  South 
immediately  or  prospectively  in  the  Senate,  by  for 
eign  acquisitions  of  territory  or  otherwise,  will  only 
precipitate  the  crisis  and  increase  the-  agitation. 
The  only  hope  of  safety  for  the  Union  seems  to  me 
to  be  for  the  South  now,  when  they  apparently  have 
the  power  through  their  own  President,  and  can  do 
so  without  sacrifice  of  their  pride,  to  recede  from 
their  position  in  regard  to  slavery  extension,  and 
from  their  struggle  for  that  fatal  chimera  "the 
balance  of  power."  Let  it  give  up  this,  and  by  its 
compact  union  it  will  always  have  more  than  its  fair 
share  of  the  government ;  then  by  taking  ground 
on  which  the  conservatives  of  the  North  can  stand 
with  them  (and  still  retain  their  due  influence  at 
home),  the  true  interests  of  the  whole  country  may 
be  secured  by  putting  down  radical  and  dangerous 
experiments  in  government,  and  by  avoiding  those 
foreign  wars  which  our  turbulent  spirits,  North  and 
South,  will  always  be  only  too  ready  to  engage  in 
against  the  despotisms  of  the  Old  World. 

Yours  truly,  J.  M.  F. 


SLAVERY  159 

To  turn  now  from  politics  to  home  matters.  It 
may  be  remembered  that  some  years  previous  to 
this  winter  (1856-57)  my  father  had  joined  my 
mother's  uncle,  Mr.  Swain,  in  buying  the  island  of 
Naushon,  Mr.  Swain  assuming  the  duties  of  host, 
or  as  it  was  jokingly  called,  "  governor,"  of  the 
island,  and  my  parents  spending  a  month  of  their 
long  vacation  every  year  as  his  guests.  Mr.  Swain's 
increasing  disabilities  now  made  it  desirable  to  re 
verse  these  positions  of  host  and  guest;  and  the 
control  of  the  island  was  consequently  handed  over 
to  my  father.  The  "  Governor  "  charged  him  in  a 
pathetic  letter,  dated  2d  December,  1856,  to  pre 
serve  "  that  simplicity  which  is  after  all  the  great 
charm  of  such  a  place/'  and  urged  that  "  the  secret 
of  enjoyment  for  those  who  visited  the  island  had 
been  the  feeling  that  the  hospitalities  of  the  place 
were  dispensed  without  being  a  tax  upon  the  family, 
no  labored  attempts  at  entertainment  either  at  the 
table  or  elsewhere,  but  people  left  to  enjoy  them 
selves  in  the  most  simple  way."  From  this  time 
the  island  became  my  parents'  summer  and  autumn 
home.  I  think  it  will  have  appeared  from  what  I 
have  told  of  their  life  there  that  they  entirely  sym 
pathized  with  the  views  of  their  relative,  and  carried 
them  out  as  host  and  hostess  in  letter  and  spirit,  so 
long  as  this  was  practicable. 

With  the  view  of  insuring  easy  access  to  the 
island  my  father  got  his  brother  Bennet  to  model 
for  him  the  schooner  Azalea  and  supervise  the 
building  of  her.  He  speaks  of  her  as  being  needed 


160  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

for  "  a  family  carry-all  in  those  days  when  we  had 
no  railway  to  Wood's  Hole  and  only  a  tri-weekly 
steamer  between  New  Bedford  and  Naushon."  She 
entirely  answered  her  purpose  and  did  good  service 
in  both  work  and  play  for  more  than  a  score  of 
years. 

For  the  ten  years  preceding  the  time  at  which  we 
have  arrived,  my  father's  business  in  ships  and  mer 
chandise  had  been  gradually  decreasing,  and  its 
management  largely  delegated  to  others.  His  own 
personal  interest  had  become  centred  in  the  grow 
ing  railroad  systems  of  the  West.  His  work  was 
mainly  devoted  to  the  Michigan  Central,  and  to  the 
enterprise  already,  in  1856,  known  by  its  permanent 
title  of  the  Chicago,  Burlington  and  Quincy  Kail- 
road,  with  which,  from  its  first  small  beginnings  as 
a  feeder  of  the  older  line,  he  had  been  so  intimately 
connected.  This  change,  no  doubt,  was  partly  due 
to  the  altered  conditions  of  trade  with  the  East, 
caused  by  the  introduction  of  steamships.  As  yet 
the  ocean  telegraph,  which  was  soon  to  do  away 
with  the  old-fashioned  China  merchant,  had  not 
come.  But  men  were  already  dreaming  of  it,  and 
experimenting  with  it. 

There  were  two  reasons  which  conspired  to 
gether,  as  time  went  on,  to  involve  my  father  more 
in  railroads  and  less  in  the  shipping  business.  In 
the  first  place,  railroads,  in  their  early  days,  had  a 
tendency  towards  financial  bogs,  and  he  was  always 
being  called  on  to  help  them  out.  Once  interested 
in  any  affair,  it  was  one  of  his  marked  traits,  when 


SLAVERY  161 

that  particular  bit  of  business  was  in  a  bad  place, 
never  to  rest  until  by  dint  of  hard  tugging  he  had 
pulled  it  out.  The  other  reason  may  be  made 
clear  by  what  a  partner  in  his  old  firm  in  China 
said  of  him  :  "  Mr.  Forbes  never  seemed  to  me  a 
man  of  acquisitiveness,  but  very  distinctly  one  of 
constructiveness.  His  wealth  was  only  an  inci 
dent.  I  have  seen  many  occasions  when  much  more 
money  might  have  been  made  by  him  in  some  busi 
ness  transaction  but  for  this  dominant  passion  for 
building  up  things.  The  good,  also,  which  he  anti 
cipated  for  workmen  and  settlers  through  opening 
up  the  country  always  weighed  much  with  him." 

His  views,  at  that  time,  as  to  the  future  of  the 
Chicago,  Burlington  and  Quincy  Kailroad,  may  be 
seen  in  the  following  reply  to  queries  addressed  to 
him  by  his  correspondent  in  Calcutta,  Mr.  George 
Ashburner :  — 

MILTON,  January  19,  1857. 

MY  DEAR  MR.  ASHBURNER,  —  ...  You  ask  what 
permanent  advantage  the  Chicago,  Burlington  and 
Quincy  has  over  other  roads  to  the  Mississippi  ? 

It  runs  through  the  very  finest  country  in  the 
State  and  in  a  very  direct  line,  has  two  feeders  from 
the  West,  no  hurtful  competition  yet,  good  outlets 
East,  efficient  officers  and  an  honest  president  who 
wants  to  get  rid  of  the  office,  and  never  sought  it, 
and  a  local  traffic  which  must,  I  think,  always  give 
it  a  fair  business  even  if  its  through  traffic  dimin 
ishes.  It  has  not  been  built  very  economically, 
having  paid  high  prices  for  labor  and  iron,  and 


162  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

some  high  shaves  in  selling  its  bonds,  as  you  can 
testify ;  but  it  has  been  run  by  honest  and  very  in 
telligent  men,  simply  and  purely  for  the  interest  of 
the  stockholders,  and  not  for  any  town,  village, 
other  railroad,  or  individual.  It  has  been,  up  to 
this  time,  managed  by  people  having  a  large  in 
terest  in  it,  and  what  mistakes  or  extravagances 
they  have  committed  have  been  honest  ones,  grow 
ing  out  of  their  being  too  full  of  work  to  attend  to 
details  as  much  as  our  New  England  Yankees  do ; 
and  against  this  rather  lavish  expense  I  put  the 
advantage  of  having  it  planned  and  managed  by 
large  minds  who  looked  ahead,  and  knew  the  great 
interests  they  had  to  care  for. 

Now,  it  is  not  to  be  denied  that,  in  that  flat  coun 
try,  others  may  at  a  time  of  cheap  money  and  iron, 
come  alongside  of  it  and  build  a  cheaper  road  that 
could  diminish  its  profits,  but  with  so  wide  a  field 
open  as  those  prairies  give  I  should  think  railroad 
enterprise  would  naturally  take  other  unoccupied 
fields  for  years  to  come.  Still  there  lies  its  danger. 
Of  course  it  has  others,  like  all  railroads,  from 
change  of  management,  dishonest  financial  manage 
ment,  etc.,  but  it  has  passed  safely  through  the 
infantile  diseases  of  railroads,  and  its  chance  seems 
to  me  good  for  the  future.  It  is  not  cursed  with 
branches.  .  .  . 

So  much  for  the  intrinsic  advantages  of  the  rail 
road  ;  now  as  to  its  comparative  ones.  I  have  not 
the  means  of  judging,  as  it  requires  infinite  time 
and  trouble  to  dig  deep  into  the  bowels  of  a  cor- 


SLAVERY  163 

poration  ;  I  can  only  say  that  the  other  roads  there 
may  have  a  country  nearly  as  good,  and  a  location 
nearly  as  good,  but  some  have  a  complication  of 
doubtful  branches,  some  zigzag  to  meet  local  in 
terests,  some  have  been  built  by  contractors  who 
were  directors,  and  pronounced  on  the  proper  execu 
tion  of  their  own  work  !  And  as  to  the  others,  it  is 
hard  to  say  how  far  honesty  and  intelligence  have 
directed  them.  Some  may  be  cheaper  and  better 
than  this ;  but  I  am  too  old  to  go  into  the  investi 
gation  of  their  merits,  preferring,  until  this  line 
gets  much  higher  and  others  lower,  to  stick  to  the 
one  that  I  know  has  had  certain  positive  advan 
tages  over  the  majority  of  roads,  by  being  located, 
planned,  and  built  by  the  right  sort  of  men,  and 
also  the  advantage  of  proving  by  its  results  from 
month  to  month,  that  the  projectors  only  under 
rated  the  pecuniary  results  of  their  work.  True, 
they  also  underrated  its  cost ;  but  that  is  a  chronic 
complaint  about  railroads !  .  .  . 

Very  truly  yours,  J.  M.  FORBES. 

No  note  of  warning  is  sounded  in  this  letter  to 
Mr.  Ashburner  of  the  coming  financial  panic  of 
1857.  I  suspect  the  truth  was  that,  busy  in  altering 
the  mansion  house  at  Naushon,  and  on  the  thousand 
details  incident  to  his  occupation  of  the  island,  he 
did  not  follow  the  business  world  with  quite  the 
same  keen  sight  as  was  habitual  to  him.  Possibly 
too,  intent,  up  to  1856,  on  the  management  of  the 
Michigan  Central,  he  did  not  see  that  overbuilding 


164  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

of  railroads  was  going  on  throughout  the  West, 
—  tying  up  capital  in  non-paying  and  ill-advised 
adventures  and  bringing  on  the  crash,  of  which 
an  account  is  given  in  the  following  chapter. 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE   BUSINESS   PANIC    OF   1857. THE   IMPENDING 

POLITICAL    CRISIS 

THE  year  1857  seems  to  have  opened  quietly  for 
my  father.  I  find  him  writing,  in  April,  to  Mr. 
Edward  Cunningham,  one  of  the  partners  in  Rus 
sell  &  Co.,  who  was  about  to  return  home  from 
China,  and  discussing  the  sale  of  "  blacks  and  cheap 
greens  "  (teas),  the  new  minister  to  England,  and 
French  and  English  operations  in  China.  He  writes 
in  his  notes,  "I  had  left  the  Michigan  Central 
presidency,  and  though  still  a  director,  I  considered 
myself  on  the  retired  list  and  remained  quietly  at 
Naushon  all  summer,  hardly  attending  at  all  to  the 
railroad." 

The  following  letter  from  Mr.  William  Sturgis, 
directed  to  him  at  Naushon,  shows  that  at  the  be 
ginning  of  September  he  could  not  have  been  con 
templating  any  excitements  apart  from  those  to  be 
looked  for  on  the  island  :  — 

BOSTON,  September  5, 1857. 

MY  DEAR  FORBES,  —  On  my  return  from  that 
centre  of  "  Devildom,"  New  York  city,  I  found 
your  kind  note  inviting  me  to  a  hunt  on  the  22d 


166  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

inst.,  and  time  was  when  I  should  have  accepted  it 
as  eagerly  as  the  governor  would  a  challenge  to  a 
game  at  all-fours,  —  at  which  he  is  usually  sure  to 
be  beaten,  —  but  now,  alas,  though  the  spirit  is  will 
ing  and  more  than  willing,  the  flesh,  especially  the 
lower  extremities,  cannot  be  relied  upon,  and  I  dare 
not  make  the  attempt. 

Do  not  think  I  am  deterred  by  apprehensions  of 
broken  limbs  or  a  bruised  body  under  your  guid 
ance.  Any  one  who  has  followed  you  as  I  have, 
carrying  a  heavy  gun  on  a  wild  colt  dashing  at  full 
speed  through  dense  woods,  and  over  that  so-called 
trotting-course  full  of  holes,  stumps,  scrub  oaks, 
and  tangled  briars,  and  escaped  a  smash-up,  may 
feel  assured  that  fate  has  destined  him  for  some 
other  end  than  a  broken  neck  by  such  means. 

You  say  that  you  have  "  made  a  thorough  re 
form,  clearing  out  all  the  old  break-neck  horses 
and  substituting  well-bred  and  well-broken  animals." 
I  am  bound  to  think  that  you  believe  what  you  say, 
but  I  got  an  idea  of  what  you  consider  a  "  well- 
bred  and  well-broken  "  animal  from  a  description  I 
have  had,  and  a  sketch  I  have  seen,  of  an  occurrence 
that  took  place  a  few  months  since,  which  would 
satisfy  the  most  incredulous  that  he  would  be  as 
safe  in  driving  one  of  your  reform  horses  as  he 
would  be  in  a  wagon  harnessed  to  a  fresh  caught 
mustang  stallion  in  the  middle  of  a  Western  prairie. 

You  refer  to  the  elder  Mr.  Quincy ;  now  that 
won't  do,  my  dear  fellow.  You  cannot  make  a  stool- 
pigeon  of  the  venerable  gentleman  ;  even  his  cer- 


THE  BUSINESS  PANIC  OF  1857  167 

tificate  would  not  neutralize  the  stubborn  fact  above 
alluded  to. 

Seriously,  though,  I  should  very  much  like  to 
gratify  the  Governor  —  God  bless  him  —  by  joining 
the  hunt,  and  gratify  myself  by  meeting  the  old  set 
of  sportsmen  once  more,  yet  I  dare  not  venture  to 
undertake  that  which  requires  more  physical  pow 
ers  than  any  one  can  expect  to  possess  at  seventy- 
six.  I  must,  therefore,  content  myself  with  again 
thanking  you  for  the  invitation  and  assuring  you 
that  I  am  faithfully  yours, 

WM.  STURGIS. 

The  financial  panic,  "  more  extensive  than  that 
of  1837  and  equally  sharp  while  it  lasted,"  as  my 
father  says  of  it  in  his  notes,  must  have  struck  Bos 
ton  about  the  middle  of  the  month,  for  I  find  the 
following  to  Mr.  Edward  Cunningham,  then  in  Eu 
rope,  on  his  way  home  from  China :  — 

BOSTON,  September  28, 1857. 

MY  DEAR  EDWARD,  —  We  are  in  such  a  crisis 
here  as  only  those  who  went  through  1837  can  con 
ceive  of.  J.  K.  Mills  &  Co.  and  many  stronger 
houses  have  gone,  and  other  large  ones  on  Milk 
Street  only  exist  by  sufferance,  and  many  large 
manufacturing  companies  are  in  the  same  straits. 

New  York  Central  Railroad  has  run  down  from 
87  to  55,  and  Michigan  Central  from  95  to  45, 
while  the  weaker  concerns  are  clear  out  of  sight  — 
Erie  10,  Southern  Michigan  10-15. 


168  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

Having  taken  in  sail,  not  expecting  a  storm,  but 
out  of  pure  laziness,  I  am  very  easy  unless  other 
people  swamp  me  ;  but  I  don't  believe  W.  Appleton's 
note  indorsed  by  W.  Sturgis  would  bring  $100,000 
here  within  forty-eight  hours,  at  three  per  cent,  per 
month,  —  such  is  the  panic. 

.  .  .  Tell  B.  the  Chicago,  Burlington  and  Quincy 
Kailroad  seems  very  snug  for  a  month  or  two  to 
come,  and  Joy  is  sanguine  that  it  will  do  a  fine  busi 
ness  when  the  crops  begin  to  move  east. 

Yours  always,  J.  M.  F. 

It  is  clear  that  he  had  not  then  the  least  expecta 
tion  of  meeting  his  correspondent  on  the  other  side 
of  the  Atlantic.  But  he  was  not  long  to  remain 
"  on  the  retired  list." 

Early  in  October  he  was  called  up  from  Naushon 
and  urgently  requested  to  go  to  London  to  get  a 
loan  of  two  million  dollars,  which  might  prevent 
the  Michigan  Central  Railroad  becoming  bankrupt. 
As  to  the  policy  which  had  brought  the  road  face  to 
face  with  such  a  dilemma,  he  writes  in  his  notes  : 
"Somehow  the  directors  had  taken  the  view  that 
the  high  rates  for  money  in  the  street  were  only 
temporary ;  and  so  for  the  needful  construction  and 
other  outlays  they  had  allowed  the  company  to  incur 
a  heavy  floating  debt  instead  of  selling  stock  and 
bonds  to  meet  their  outlays."  But  the  crisis  had  to 
be  met,  and  he  could  not  refuse  to  go ;  so,  taking 
his  two  eldest  daughters  with  him,  he  started  for 
London  by  the  next  steamer.  He  soon  accomplished 


THE  BUSINESS  PANIC   OF  1857  169 

his  object,  obtaining  the  needed  loan  from  the  Bar 
ings,  though,  as  was  inevitable  in  time  of  panic,  on 
very  onerous  terms. 

During  this  English  visit  he  made  a  trip  with  his 
daughters  to  France,  where  his  stay  was  saddened 
by  the  sickness  and  death,  in  Paris,  of  a  cousin, 
Charles  Hathaway,  of  whom  my  father  was  very 
fond.  He  was  with  him  at  the  end,  and  he  had  to 
see  to  things  for  the  widow  before  leaving.  While 
in  Paris  he  discovered  that  the  great  efficiency  of 
Louis  Napoleon's  police  could  be  turned  to  good 
account.  He  heard  by  chance  that  Mr.  E.  Cunning 
ham  must  have  got  wind  of  the  panic  in  the  United 
States,  and  that  he  was  hurrying  home  through 
France  that  very  day,  not  dreaming  of  his  own  pre 
sence  in  Paris.  My  father  went  to  the  Police  Bu 
reau,  and  managed  to  have  him  arrested  as  he  was 
embarking  for  England ;  and  thus  was  able  to  satisfy 
him,  when  they  met  the  next  morning,  that  he  had 
attended  to  his  affairs  before  leaving  Boston,  and  that 
there  was  no  need  for  his  giving  up  a  particularly 
pleasant  European  tour,  which  he  had  been  enjoying 
when  the  news  of  the  panic  had  struck  him. 

My  father  and  his  daughters  returned  to  New 
York  by  the  American  steamship  Atlantic,  com 
manded  by  his  friend,  Captain  Eldridge.  They  had 
reckoned  on  opening  the  house  at  Naushon  and  eat 
ing  their  Thanksgiving  dinner  there,  but  just  as  they 
were  about  to  leave  Milton  for  New  Bedford  he  got 
an  urgent  telegram  from  General  Fremont,  the  Re 
publican  candidate  whom  Buchanan  had  defeated  at 


170  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

the  late  election,  begging  him  to  meet  him  in  Boston 
about  some  affairs  very  important  to  the  General. 
So  my  father  sent  part  of  the  family  ahead  to  catch 
the  steamer  from  New  Bedford  to  Naushon,  and 
went  to  Boston  himself.  As  soon  as  he  was  free  of 
the  Fremont  business,  he  whisked  off  the  rest  of 
the  party,  and,  catching  at  New  Bedford  "  a  rickety 
fishing-smack  bound  towards  the  Vineyard,"  landed 
at  the  island,  where,  as  he  says,  in  spite  of  cold 
weather  and  a  smoky  chimney,  they  managed  to 
have  a  very  jolly  visit. 

Soon  after  this,  the  Michigan  Central  passed  into 
New  York  hands,  and  my  father  sold  out  his  interest 
in  it  "  at  only  a  moderate  profit  on  the  investment 
to  pay  for  some  ten  years'  hard  and  responsible  work 
without  pay." 1  But  he  had  gained  experience  which 
was  invaluable  to  himself  and  the  Chicago,  Burling 
ton  and  Quincy  Railroad,  then  in  rapid  course  of 
development. 

The  railroad  panic  had,  it  would  appear,  shaken 
the  confidence  of  the  Barings  in  American  credit 
generally,  for  I  find  that  my  father  wrote  in  March, 
1858,  to  their  Boston  agent,  Mr.  S.  G.  Ward,  show 
ing,  with  regard  to  the  credits  which  he  still  found 
it  convenient  to  have  from  them,  in  view  of  his 
Chinese  shipments,  that  he  had  seldom  used  more 
than  half  their  amount,  and  adding  that  he  had 
never  had  at  one  time  more  than  half  of  what  he 
was  actually  worth,  invested  in  merchandise.  What 
he  wrote  satisfied  his  London  friends  that  in  mer- 

1  Except  a  complimentary  gift  at  parting.  —  ED. 


THE  IMPENDING  POLITICAL  CRISIS  171 

cantile  matters  he  was  what  he  claimed  to  be, "  ultra 
conservative." 

But  it  was  neither  commerce  nor  railroads  that 
now  occupied  the  chief  place  in  his  thoughts.  Poli 
tics  were  rapidly  becoming  his  absorbing  interest. 
Prior  to  1850  he  had  been  a  subscribing  but  not 
active  member  of  the  Whig  party,  the  leaders  of 
which  in  Boston  were  among  his  social  friends ;  but 
the  time  came  when  he  found  this  no  longer  possible. 
He  writes  in  his  notes :  — 

"  When  Webster  made  his  great  speech,  on  the 
7th  of  March,  1850,  supporting  the  Fugitive  Slave 
Law,  and  indorsing  all  the  compromises  by  which 
we  surrendered  to  the  slave-owners,  the  scales  fell 
from  my  eyes,  and  I  gave  up  the  Whig  party  and 
acted  in  my  quiet  way  with  the  Republicans,  then 
called  <  Free-Soilers.'  " 

Apparently  his  withdrawal  from  the  Whig  party 
and  his  reasons  for  withdrawal  caused  only  hilarity 
among  his  friends  (the  Whig  leaders),  for  in  men 
tioning  that  they  continued  to  come  to  the  deer 
hunts  at  Naushon  he  adds,  as  to  the  talk  on  those 
occasions :  — 

"  Our  discussions  were  frequent  upon  politics,  but 
were  good-natured ;  and  I  especially  remember  the 
roar  of  laughter  which  followed  my  very  innocent 
question,  'What  are  you  going  to  do  about  the 
Wilmot  Proviso  ? '  (against  extending  slavery  into 
territories  then  free).  'Why/  shouted  they,  'the 
Wilmot  Proviso  !  You  will  never  hear  of  it  again  ; 
but  look  for  it  among  the  old  flags  and  torn  posters 


172  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

of  the  campaign;  it  has  served  its  purpose,  like 
them,  for  the  time,  but  will  now  disappear.'  They 
w ere  practical  politicians  and  really  believed  so." 

But  long  before  Buchanan's  election  in  1856 
my  father's  friends  among  "practical  politicians" 
must  have  begun  to  suspect  that  the  principle  repre 
sented  by  the  Wilmot  Proviso  was  not  going  to  be 
put  away  among  the  old  "  campaign  flags  and  torn 
posters;"  and  now  that  the  political  cauldron  had 
come  to  show  unmistakable  signs  of  boiling  over, 
they  must  have  been  convinced  that  it  was  making 
a  very  live  issue  indeed.  What  my  father  thought 
of  the  situation  will  appear  from  the  following  letter 
to  one  of  the  partners  in  Russell  &  Co.,  then  in 
Paris :  — 

J.   M.    FORBES   TO   N.   M.    BECKWITH. 

MILTON,  January  17, 1858. 

MY  DEAR  BECKWITH,  — ...  I  suppose  you  get 
out  of  the  papers  all  our  politics.  They  are,  in  a 
nutshell :  James  Buchanan,  or  rather  James  Plat 
form,  having  sold  himself  to  the  South,  has  blun 
dered  right  and  left,  and  especially  has  played  into 
the  hands  of  Douglas,  who  will  make  capital  enough 
out  of  squatter  sovereignty  to  divide  the  North  at 
the  next  election,  and  will  quietly  turn  to  the  South 
and  say  to  their  old  file  leaders,  "  That  old  fool 
Buchanan  was  spoiling  your  game;  Kansas  was 
gone,  and  he  was  ruining  the  Democratic  party  at 
the  North  for  an  abstraction ;  your  only  allies  are 
the  Northern  Democrats :  you  know  me  to  be  just 


THE  IMPENDING  POLITICAL  CRISIS  173 

as  deeply  pro-slavery  as  any  man  can  be  who  can 
get  a  show  of  hands  at  the  North ;  vote  for  me  and 
you  get  the  power  four  years  longer,  and  with  the 
help  of  official  patronage,  and  using  the  land-steal 
ing  mania  adroitly,  and  above  all  by  returning 
from  bullying  to  the  traditional  policy  of  the  South, 
viz.,  political  management,  you  can  continue  to 
divide  the  North  and  retain  power  indefinitely,  or  at 
any  rate  until,  with  Northern  men  and  money,  you 
have  gained  all  the  territory  you  want ;  and  then 
you  can  try  bullying  again,  and  either  govern  or 
dissolve  the  Union," 

Such,  I  fear,  is  the  programme,  and  to  my  eye  the 
"  situation  "  looks  worse  than  it  has  any  time  since 
the  Nebraska  villainy  was  planned.  Douglas  has 
retrieved  his  position,  lost  by  that  folly,  and  from 
his  superior  boldness  is  the  most  dangerous  opponent 
free  principles  can  have.  Of  course,  we  shall  fight 
him  to  the  last ! 

My  father  had  supported  Fremont  at  the  pre 
vious  election,  but  was  very  doubtful  as  to  whether 
his  speculative  tendencies  and  consequent  unsavory 
hangers-on  did  not  disqualify  him  as  leader  in  that 
which  was  to  come.  At  the  same  time  he  recog 
nized  that  "  Seward  was  too  much  of  a  hack,  McLean 
too  old,  Sumner  too  theoretical  and  egotistic,"  and 
doubted  whether  "Commodore  Paulding  was  man 
enough,  even  if  the  South  would  consent  to  perse 
cute  him  till  he  became  a  hero  in  the  eyes  of  the 
North."  Then  again,  though  he  sympathized  in  a 


174:  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

great  measure  with  the  Abolitionists,  amongst  whom 
he  had  many  friends  and  relatives,  he  could  not, 
as  a  true  patriot,  longing  for  the  keeping  of  the 
peace,  help  seeing  their  rashness  and  trying  to  keep 
them  within  bounds.  Thus,  to  Wendell  Phillips 
and  others,  prior  to  one  of  their  Abolitionist  meet 
ings  in  Boston,  he  gave  the  following  advice :  — 

"  You  had  better  use  your  influence  to  defer,  if 
not  give  up  entirely,  the  meeting.  The  Boston 
Republicans  have  not  hardened  enough  to  stand  the 
test.  The  Bell-Everetts  and  Democrats,  touched  in 
their  pockets,  are  in  a  highly  irritated  state.  At 
the  night  meeting  the  Abolitionists  vindicated  their 
right  to  speak,  and  the  community  is  with  them 
now,  as  having  both  been  persecuted  and  shown 
pluck  after  it.  Let  them  be  content  to  wait.  At 
that  night  meeting  it  is  reported  that  large  numbers 
of  Abolitionists  went  armed  with  deadly  weapons. 
If  they  have  another,  there  is  every  probability  that 
the  young  broadcloth  rowdies  and  the  Ann  Street 
men  will  also  go  armed.  Suppose  a  coUision  takes 
place  and  serious  consequences  come,  the  pro-slavery 
party,  if  successful,  may  consider  the  present  to 
their  Southern  allies  of  a  few  Abolition  lives  as  a 
peace  offering  that  will  help  the  Union  and  their 
pockets.  On  the  other  hand,  if  the  Abolitionists 
succeed  and  some  fatal  consequences  occur,  it  will 
turn  the  tide  of  sympathy  from  them.  Their  suc 
cess  is  very  doubtful,  —  mischief  very  imminent. 
They  had  better  be  content  with  their  success  or 
their  draw-game  as  it  now  stands,  and  wait. 


THE  IMPENDING  POLITICAL  CRISIS  175 

"  Their  policy  is,  towards  the  Kepublicans,  to  let 
them  fight  the  pro-slavery  men ;  just  as  our  policy 
in  this  time  of  excitement  is  to  let  the  Union  men 
of  the  South  fight  the  fire-eaters.  Let  the  extremes 
keep  out  of  it  as  much  as  possible." 

The  following  letter  to  his  son  will  show  that  in 
the  midst  of  all  this  political  turmoil  my  father  did 
not  forget  the  good  of  his  family :  — 

Tuesday,  29  January,  [1858,]  MILTON. 

MY  DEAR :  I  am  very  sorry  to  hear  from 

your  mother  that  there  is  some  doubt  whether  you 
can  remain  in  college,  unless  you  study  more  suc 
cessfully  during  the  short  remnant  of  the  term,  or 
use  up  your  vacation. 

Now,  my  dear  boy,  do  try  for  the  rest  of  the 
term  to  make  such  an  impression  upon  your  teach 
ers  as  will  help  to  remove  the  memory  of  past  de 
ficiencies. 

Consider  what  a  miserable  thing  it  will  be  to 
begin  life  by  a  failure  !  What  a  bad  augury  for 
your  future  fortunes ! 

You  may  think  it  is  only  because  you  have  no 
taste  for  study  that  you  succeed  so  ill,  but  you 
must  remember  that  in  the  beginnings  of  all  work 
you  must  sacrifice  taste  to  duty  and  principle.  All 
the  real  work  of  life  goes  hard  until  you  have  ac 
customed  yourself  to  do  it  manfully,  without  con 
sidering  your  inclinations,  and  then  work  often 
becomes  a  pleasure,  and  always  forms  the  basis  of 
true  happiness  or  content. 


176  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

It  may  seem  to  you  too  late  now  to  begin,  but  it 
is  not  so.  Take  hold  with  a  will ;  make  your  teach 
ers  feel  that  you  have  a  disposition  to  retrieve ;  and 
you  will  find  they  will  make  allowances  for  you  on 
account  of  your  accident,  and  you  may  still  begin 
the  term  with  a  fair  reputation. 

Perhaps  I  have  done  wrongly  in  not  saying  this 
to  you  earlier,  but  I  hate  to  be  always  before  you  as 
a  monitor.  I  want  to  be  in  your  mind  as  your  best 
friend,  ready  to  promote  all  innocent  enjoyments 
and  to  look  lightly  on  your  faults ;  but  I  do  want 
to  see  you  act  a  man's  part  in  this  world,  and  to  do 
so  you  must  make  great  sacrifices  of  your  taste  and 
inclination.  Do  not  make  the  dreadful  mistake  of 
thinking  it  is  the  circumstances  of  the  present  that 
control  you,  and  that  at  some  future  time  you  will 
change. 

The  present  is  all  that  belongs  to  you.  Now,  I 
have  the  means  to  give  you  an  education  that  will 
always  (if  properly  used  now)  put  you  on  a  higher 
level  than  the  mass ;  put  you  among  the  workers 
with  the  head  instead  of  the  hands.  Now  you 
have  youth,  and  health,  and  kind  friends  to  encour 
age  you.  All  this  may  change  at  any  moment. 

"  Your  hand  will  never  be  stronger, 
Nor  wanted  as  now  to-day" 

Ever  your  affectionate  FATHER. 

To  return  to  the  political  situation.  Among  its 
great  perplexities  there  was,  for  him  personally,  an 
additional  complication.  His  railroad  interests  had 


THE  IMPENDING  POLITICAL  CRISIS  177 

led  him  into  building,  as  has  been  said,  the  Hanni 
bal  and  St.  Joseph  line,  the  stock  of  which  stood  in 
the  name  of  three  trustees,  of  whom  he  was  chair 
man  and  manager.  He  therefore  was  responsible  to 
all  the  stockholders  of  the  road  for  its  prudent  con 
duct.  This  road  ran  through  the  heart  of  Missouri, 
a  bitterly  pro-slavery  country ;  and  however  indig 
nant  my  father  might  be  at  the  claims  and  conduct 
of  the  South,  he  yet,  so  long  as  he  represented  other 
people's  property,  could  not,  in  justice  to  them,  pro 
claim  in  the  market-place  his  distaste  for  pro-slavery 
methods.  On  the  other  hand,  the  railroad  was  the 
direct  connecting  link  of  Kansas  with  the  East,  and 
over  it,  supplied  with  money  and  Sharps'  rifles, 
which  he  had  helped  to  provide,  came  the  free  men 
from  Massachusetts,  bent  on  preventing  the  dreaded 
institution  of  slavery  from  gaining  a  foothold  on 
that  disputed  ground.  The  latest  compromise  with 
the  South  had  thrown  the  responsibility  of  slavery 
or  freedom  in  Kansas  on  the  voters,  and  the  pro- 
slavery  Missourians  were  contesting  the  election, 
revolvers  in  hand.  The  Free-Soil  party  were  the 
men  responsible  for  the  Kansas  immigration,  and 
with  them  my  father  worked  quietly  all  through 
that  time,  until  at  last,  as  he  says  in  his  notes, 
"  The  rebellion  broke  out,  and  I  was  glad  to  be 
able  to  join  the  party  of  freedom  and  to  have  the 
chance  to  raise  the  money  needed  for  supplying 
uniforms  to  the  first  loyal  regiment  which  General 
Frank  Blair  raised  in  Missouri." 

To  those  born  in  times  when  people  accept  all 


178  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

such  stories  very  much  as  ancient  history,  perhaps 
the  following  letters  will  not  bring  the  thrill  that 
they  are  likely  to  rouse  in  such  of  us  as  have  lived 
through  the  period  described ;  but  "  lest  we  forget " 
the  suffering,  struggles,  and  inspiration  of  the  time 
preceding  the  war,  as  well  as  the  war  itself,  I  give 
them. 

S.   G.   HOWE  TO  J.   M.   FORBES. 

NEW  YORK,  February  5, 1859. 

MY  DEAR  SIR,  —  A  friend  requests  me  to  write 
a  line  to  you  introducing  Captain  John  Brown  of 
Kansas. 

I  have  carefully  watched  the  movements  of  Brown 
for  two  years  and  have  considerable  personal  know 
ledge  of  him.  He  is  of  the  stuff  of  which  martyrs 
are  made.  He  is  of  the  Puritan  order  militant.  He 
is  called  fighting  Brown,  because  under  his  natural 
and  unaffected  simplicity  and  modesty  there  is  an 
irresistible  propensity  to  war  upon  injustice  and 
wrong.  He  is  cool,  fearless,  keen,  and  ready  with 
all  his  mental  and  bodily  powers  in  the  most  sudden 
and  imminent  dangers.  If  you  would  like  to  talk 
with  him  upon  the  square,  and  hear  what  he  has  to 
say  about  what  might  perhaps  seem  at  first  to  be 
treason,  he  will  be  glad  to  talk  with  you. 

So  far  as  one  man  can  answer  for  another  whom 
he  has  not  known  very  long  and  intimately,  I  can 
answer  for  Brown's  honesty  of  purpose. 

Faithfully  yours,  S.  G.  HOWE. 


THE  IMPENDING  POLITICAL  CRISIS  179 

THE  SAME  TO  THE   SAME. 

BOSTON,  May  9,  1859. 

MY  DEAR  SIR, — Captain  Brown  (old  J.  B.)  is 
here.  If  any  one  desires  to  get  the  thirty-two 
hundred  and  fifty  dollars'  reward  offered  for  his 
apprehension  by  the  governor  of  Missouri  and  the 
President  of  the  United  States,  he  has  only  to  go 
to  the  hotel  in  Beach  Street,  and  try  to  take  the 
old  fellow. 

He  is  a  character,  I  assure  you ;  and  if  you  are 
disposed  to  have  a  conversation  with  him,  he  will 
call  at  your  house,  or  your  office,  as  you  may  ap 
point.  He  knows  more  about  the  question  of  prac 
tical  emancipation  than  any  one  whom  I  have  seen. 
Faithfully  yours,  S.  G.  HOWE. 

My  father  gives  in  his  notes  the  following  account 
of  the  visit  from  John  Brown.  The  statements  as 
to  numbers  and  position,  recalled  nearly  thirty  years 
after  the  events,  do  not  always  accord  with  those  in 
the  printed  records.  I  give  them  as  they  stand :  — 

"  When  I  received  the  last  of  Dr.  Howe's  letters, 
I  was  busy  in  town,  and  wished  to  show  the  captain 
to  the  rest  of  my  family  ;  so  I  invited  him  and  Mr. 
Frank  Sanborn  out  to  Milton  to  tea,  and  one  rainy 
night  they  appeared.  We  summoned  such  neigh 
bors  as  we  could  easily  reach,  among  them  William 
Hunt,  and  had  a  most  interesting  evening,  and  in 
deed  night ;  for,  the  storm  continuing,  we  kept  them 
over  and  sat  up  talking  until  after  midnight. 


180  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

"  Captain  Brown  was  a  grim,  farmer-like  looking 
man,  with  a  long  gray  beard  and  glittering,  gray- 
blue  eyes  which  seemed  to  me  to  have  a  little  touch 
of  insanity  about  them.  I  did  all  I  could  to  draw 
the  old  man  out  and  make  him  talk,  first  politics 
and  then  about  his  adventures  in  Kansas.  He  re 
pelled,  almost  with  scorn,  my  suggestion  that  firm 
ness  at  the  ballot-box  by  the  North  and  West  might 
avert  the  storm ;  and  said  it  had  passed  the  stage 
of  ballots,  and  nothing  but  bayonets  and  bullets 
could  settle  it  now.  He  had  been  visiting  Europe, 
partly  on  wool  business,  —  for  he  had  been  and  per 
haps  was  still  a  wool  buyer  or  broker,  —  and  had 
seen  a  good  deal  of  the  European  armies,  then  in 
open  war,  and  made  many  shrewd  comparisons  be 
tween  their  methods  and  ours,  talking  like  a  man 
who  had  made  war  his  study  as  well  as  practice. 
Leading  him  back  into  Kansas  by  asking  him  about 
the  battle  of  Ossawatomie  he  replied,  in  his  jerky 
way  of  throwing  out  his  words,  6  That  was  n't  any 
battle  !  't  was  all  on  one  side ; '  and  then  he  told 
me  that  on  that  day  he  had  been  roused  by  having 
his  son  killed  by  the  Missouri  border  ruffians,  and 
another  son  dragged  at  their  horses'  heels  all  day 
in  the  sun,  until  he  was  nearly  frantic ;  he  had 
raised  a  small  force  (I  think  only  thirty)  to  watch 
the  invaders,  and  perhaps  get  a  chance  to  strike  a 
blow  at  them.  Waiting  on  the  edge  of  a  large 
swamp,  through  which  he  could  at  any  time  retreat, 
he  saw  the  enemy  coming  along  careless  and  con 
fident.  '  How  many,  Captain  Brown  ? '  '  Wai,  they 


THE  IMPENDING  POLITICAL  CRISIS  181 

said  there  was  270  of  them.'  When  they  were 
within  close  shooting  distance,  his  little  band  poured 
in  a  volley  which  threw  them  all  in  a  huddle,  and 
they  completely  lost  their  heads,  while  he  repeated 
the  attack.  At  last  they  realized  how  small  the 
Free-Soil  force  was  and  made  a  serious  attempt  to 
attack  it,  and  then  Captain  Brown  just  scuttled  off 
through  the  swamp  without  much  or  any  loss. 
'  How  many  did  you  kill  ? '  we  asked.  '  Wai,  they 
said  we  hurt  seventy  of  'em.'  '  But  you  had  some 
real  fights  with  them,  captain  ? '  He  reflected  a 
moment,  and  then  told  us  of  the  battle  of  Black 
Jack.  When  Major,  or  Colonel,  Henry  Clay  Pate 
came  against  him  with  twenty-eight  well-armed  men, 
fitted  out  at  the  East  on  purpose,  he  marched  nine 
to  oppose  them,  and  chose  a  well-covered  clump  of 
black  jacks,  while  they  advanced  on  the  open 
prairie,  until  they  were  within  easy  reach  of  their 
long-range  rifles ;  then  he  opened  fire  from  his 
ambuscade,  and  picked  them  off  until  they  sur 
rendered.  '  They  could  n't  do  nothing  else,'  he 
modestly  said,  '  for  we  were  under  cover,  and  had 
only  lost  two  or  three,  while  they  could  neither  ad 
vance  or  retreat,  for  you  could  see  a  guse's  head ' 
(not  goose's)  '300  yards.'  So  with  his  remaining 
four  or  five  men  he  marched  what  was  left  of  the 
enemy  back  captives  with  their  well-burnished  arms, 
one  of  which  I  remember  was  a  very  fine  revolver 
presented  to  Henry  Clay  Pate  by  his  neighbors, 
when  setting  off  on  his  expedition. 

"  The  captain  had  to  go  to  town  by  the  earliest 


182  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

train,  so  I  saw  no  more  of  him  after  that  night ; 
indeed  did  not  hear  much  of  him  until  his  outbreak 
at  Harper's  Ferry,  to  which  I  had  contributed  $100 
or  so,  supposing  it  to  be  merely  for  use  in  Kansas. 
When  our  parlor  girl  got  up  early,  to  open  the 
house,  she  was  startled  by  finding  the  grim  old 
soldier  sitting  bolt  upright  in  the  front  entry,  fast 
asleep ;  and  when  her  light  awoke  him,  he  sprang 
up  and  put  his  hand  into  his  breast-pocket,  where 
I  have  no  doubt  his  habit  of  danger  led  him  to 
carry  a  revolver." 

By  an  odd  chance  the  very  next  day  Governor 
Stewart,  the  pro-slavery  governor  of  Missouri  (who 
had  set  the  price  of  $3250  on  John  Brown's  head), 
"  appeared  on  railroad  business,  and  he  too  passed 
the  night  at  Milton,  little  dreaming  who  had  pre 
ceded  him  in  my  guest  room.  Some  six  months 
later  came  John  Brown's  capture  at  Harper's  Ferry, 
his  surrender  to  Robert  E.  Lee,  and  then  his  execu 
tion.1  This  was  really  almost  the  turning-point  of 
our  own  rebellion,  but  we  hardly  appreciated  the 
consequences  then." 

It  was  at  this  time  that  my  father  made  the 
acquaintance  of  John  A.  Andrew,  so  soon  to  be 
come  famous  as  the  great  war-governor  of  Massa 
chusetts,  but  then  only  "a  leading  young  lawyer 
in  Boston,"  employed  to  defend  one  of  Brown's 
adherents. 

It  was  nearly  a  year  later,  in  November,  1860, 
when  Lincoln  was  chosen  president.  My  father 

i  On  December  2, 1859. 


THE  IMPENDING  POLITICAL  CRISIS  183 

writes  in  his  notes :  "  I  had  never  taken  any  recog 
nized  part  in  public  affairs,  and  I  cannot  now 
remember  why  I  was  made  one  of  the  electors  at 
large  and  so  had  a  hand  in  electing  him  president. 
Perhaps  it  was  because  the  Free-Soil  party  wished 
to  ally  themselves  here  with  the  business  men  that 
they  chose  me  for  that  position.  I  still  have  some 
where,  as  a  relic,  the  pen  with  which  I  signed  the 
certificate  of  our  election  of  Lincoln,  about  the 
beginning  of  1861." 

What  my  father  thought  of  the  coming  presi 
dent's  self-reliance,  before  he  came  in  personal  con 
tact  with  him,  will  appear  from  the  following  letter 
to  Mr.  Senior :  — 

J.   M.   FORBES  TO  NASSAU  WILLIAM  SENIOR. 

BOSTON,  June  18, 1860. 

MY  DEAR  MR.  SENIOR,  —  Thinking  you  may  be 
interested  in  the  antecedents  of  our  promised  ruler 
Lincoln,  I  send  through  my  bookseller  a  copy  of  his 
speeches  (and  Douglas's)  during  their  great  fight 
for  the  Illinois  senatorship  —  which  form  his  chief 
record. 

From  such  of  them  as  I  have  read  I  get  the  idea 
that  he  is  an  earnest,  rough,  quick-witted  man, — 
persistent  and  determined,  half  educated,  but  self- 
reliant  and  self-taught.  These  speeches,  made  be 
fore  Seward's,  show  that  Lincoln  originated  in  these 
latter  days  the  utterance  of  the  "  irrepressible  con 
flict,"  —  and  what  is  more,  stuck  to  it  manfully. 
Those  who  know  him  assure  me  that  he  is  honest 


184  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

and   straightforward  and   owned  by  no  clique   of 
hackneyed  politicians. 

Seward  was  killed  by  his  association  with  the 
politicians  who  joined  in  the  plundering  of  the 
last  New  York  legislature,  and  by  his  speech  in 
the  Senate  ignoring  the  irrepressible  conflict  and 
smoothing  over  his  supposed  radicalism. 

The  first  evil  lost  him  the  confidence  of  the  right 
sort  of  men,  not  because  they  believed  him  corrupt, 
but  from  the  bad  company  he  had  been  in  and 
would  probably  be  in  again  !  His  latter-day  con 
servatism  conciliated  his  enemies,  who  would  not, 
however,  vote  for  him,  happen  what  might;  and 
cooled  the  zeal  of  his  radical  supporters,  and  espe 
cially  of  the  country  people.  I  think  on  the  whole 
the  actual  nominee  will  run  better  and  be  quite  as 
likely  to  administer  well  when  in.  We  shall  elect 
him,  I  think,  triumphantly,  by  the  people;  and 
avoid  that  abominable  expedient,  an  election  by  the 
House,  —  filled  as  it  is  with  so  large  a  proportion 
of  mere  politicians.  There  is  some  danger  that  we 
shall  be  disgusted  with  a  repetition  of  the  log-cabin 
and  hard-cider  style  of  campaigning  which  was  so 
successful  in  the  Harrison  election,  but  this  is  a 
minor  evil  compared  with  either  having  Douglas, 
with  his  filibustering  crew,  or  a  set  of  Albany  wire 
pullers  under  a  Republican  administration.  .  .  . 

Although  you  say  nothing  about  it,  I  still  hope 
you  will  come  out  this  summer  and  take  care  of 
your  young  prince  and  see  our  heir  apparent ! 

Yours  very  truly,  J.  M.  FORBES. 


THE  IMPENDING  POLITICAL  CRISIS  185 

In  October  of  this  year  came  the  death  of  my 
eldest  sister,  a  very  lovely  girl  only  twenty-one 
years  old.  I  have  already  spoken  of  the  tender 
love  given  to  sons  and  daughters  by  my  father. 
This  break  in  the  home  circle  gave  him  a  deep 
wound,  and  was  partly  the  cause  of  his  undertaking 
the  inordinate  work  during  the  civil  war,  which  fills 
a  large  space  in  the  following  chapters. 

Fragments  of  the  war-cloud  were  already  begin 
ning  to  fly  across  the  Atlantic  and  to  attract  the 
attention  of  observers  in  the  Old  World.  The 
widow  of  Alexis  de  Tocqueville,1  in  writing  to  my 
father  in  November,  1860,  says :  — 

"  At  last,  returned  home  to  quiet  and  repose,  I 
feel  more  courageous,  more  curious,  and  I  venture 
to  ask  you  to  tell  me  the  probable  result  of  this  new 
conflict  between  the  Republicans  and  the  Demo 
crats.  You  are  a  most  volcanic  people,  and  when 
one  fancies  you  are  in  a  dead  calm,  out  bursts  a 
tremendous  storm." 

It  was  indeed  a  "  tremendous  storm  "  that  was 
now  impending.  In  meeting  it  my  father  was  for 
quick  and  vigorous  measures.  A  very  different 
policy  was  that  of  Mr.  Seward,  the  coming  chief  of 
Mr.  Lincoln's  cabinet,  for  whom  and  for  whose 
political  methods  my  father  had  long  had  an  anti 
pathy. 

In  closing  this  chapter,  I  give  an  extract  from 
one  of  Charles  Sumner's  letters,  which  showed  that 

1  My  father  cared  for  her  American  investments,  as  he  had  done 
for  those  of  her  husband.  —  ED. 


186  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

he  shared  his  correspondent's  feelings  in  this  mat 
ter  :  — 

WASHINGTON,  13  January,  1861. 

MY  DEAR  FORBES, — ...  I  think  you  will  agree 
with  me  in  regretting  the  tone  of  Seward's  speech. 
He  read  it  to  me  last  Tuesday,  and  I  protested  most 
earnestly  against  every  word  of  compromise,  con 
cession,  or  offer  to  the  traitors.  I  wish  to  try  the 
strength  of  the  government  now.  Surely  it  is  not 
worth  having,  on  the  condition  that  any  one  State 
may  at  any  time  break  it  up.  If  this  is  the  rule,  it 
were  better  to  know  it  now,  and  govern  ourselves 
accordingly.  We  must  not  postpone  this  question 
until  still  greater  interests  will  depend  upon  it. 
Besides,  what  kind  of  concession  can  we  offer? 
Ignoble  will  it  be  in  us  to  concede  beyond  the 
Constitution,  which  of  itself  embodies  all  that  our 
fathers  would  concede. 

The  South  calls  Seward's  speech  a  "  cheat."  It 
is  unsatisfactory,  except  to  a  very  few.  Even  Cam 
eron,  of  Pennsylvania,  told  me  that  he  regretted  he 
should  "  so  let  down  the  party." 

If  the  North  will  be  firm,  our  future  will  be 
bright.  For  God's  sake,  let  there  be  no  waver 
ing.  .  .  . 

Good-by !     Ever  sincerely  yours, 

CHARLES  SUMNER. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE   BEGINNING   OF   WAR 

WE  have  now  arrived  at  the  beginning  of  those 
five  years  the  high  pressure  of  which  must  have 
equaled  that  of  any  other  fifteen  of  my  father's 
life,  those,  namely,  which  covered  the  war  of  the 
Rebellion  and  the  beginning  of  reconstruction.  The 
reader  will  find  the  selections  from  the  notes  and 
letters  exactly  as  these  stand  ;  though  in  some  cases 
time  has  rendered  a  different  verdict  from  that 
given,  off-hand,  by  a  man  to  whose  eager  tempera 
ment  and  fiery  energy  the  course  of  events  seemed 
often  embarrassed  by  unnecessary  and  absolutely 
intolerable  delays.  Whatever  may  be  thought  of 
my  father's  views,  I  am  clear,  at  any  rate,  that  to 
soften  or  withhold  the  distinct  expression  of  his 
opinions  would  be  to  rob  the  writer  of  his  individu 
ality,  and  to  sin  against  historical  truth. 

66  The  war,"  writes  my  father  in  his  notes,  "  vir 
tually  began,  for  me,  with  what  was  called  the 
'  Peace  Congress,'  of  February,  1861. 

"  In  January,  Virginia  asked  the  other  States  to 
send  delegates  to  a  congress  for  the  purpose  of  de 
vising  means  to  avert  the  civil  war  then  threaten 
ing.  This  was  pretty  generally  responded  to  at  the 


188  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

North,  and  resulted  in  the  meeting  of  what  was 
called  the  Peace  Congress  at  "Washington  in  the 
early  part  of  February,  1861.  It  was  unauthorized 
by  law  and  entirely  informal,  and  simply  a  con 
ference  of  men  of  the  different  States.  Each  State 
was  represented  by  as  many  delegates  as  it  had 
members  of  Congress,  our  Massachusetts  contingent 
being  thirteen  (I  think),  all  nominated  by  Governor 
Andrew,  under  authority  from  the  legislature.  Of 
my  colleagues  on  the  Massachusetts  delegation  I 
recall  the  names  of  George  S.  Boutwell,  J.  Z.  Good 
rich,  F.  N.  Crowninshield,  T.  P.  Chandler,  and  B.  F. 
Waters,  of  Marblehead,  as  having  been  the  most 
active. 

"  We  started,  nearly  all  together,  about  February 
10,  with  the  political  horizon  everywhere  darkly 
lowering.  My  wife  and  daughter  Mary  accom 
panied  me,  and,  through  the  kindness  of  Captain 
W.  H.  Swift,  I  had  secured  an  asylum  for  them 
with  Baron  Stoeckel,  the  Russian  ambassador,  to 
be  availed  of  in  case  the  rebels  pushed  into  Wash 
ington,  an  event  which  seemed  as  probable  as  it 
really  was  easy  of  accomplishment,  had  the  rebels 
been  half  as  smart  as  we  thought  them. 

"  At  Philadelphia  we  took  a  special  train  pro 
vided  for  us  and  other  delegates,  among  whom  I 
remember  General  John  E.  Wool,  of  the  United 
States  army,  from  New  York,  who  astonished  us 
by  the  boldness  of  his  prediction  that  in  case  the 
rebels  proceeded  to  actual  violence,  one  hundred 
thousand  men  would  spring  to  arms  from  the  North 


THE  BEGINNING  OF  WAR  189 

and  West,  sweeping  all  before  them.  Mr.  S.  M. 
Felton,  the  president  of  the  Philadelphia,  Wilming 
ton  and  Baltimore  road,  joined  us,  and  taking  me 
aside  proceeded  to  show  me  his  plans  for  meeting 
the  designs  of  the  rebels  against  the  long  bridges 
we  were  passing  over,  which  he  had  discovered 
through  his  detectives.  These  were  simply  to  take 
steamers  at  the  north  bank  of  the  Susquehanna 
(where  his  line  was  safe)  and  send  troops  around  to 
Annapolis  and  Washington  by  water.  It  is  note 
worthy  that  when,  in  April,  General  Butler  reached 
Philadelphia,  and  found  these  very  bridges  burned, 
and  Baltimore  practically  an  enemy's  city,  Felton 
had  great  difficulty,  with  the  help  of  Admiral  Du- 
pont,  in  showing  the  general  that  the  Annapolis 
plan  was  the  true  one.  Once  adopted,  Butler  al 
ways  assumed  to  himself  the  credit  of  the  dis 
covery.  Mr.  Felton  at  the  same  time  confidentially 
informed  me  of  the  plot  which  he  had  discovered 
to  attack  President  Lincoln  on  his  way  through 
Baltimore,  and  intrusted  to  me  a  message  to  W.  H. 
Seward  in  regard  to  it,  and  to  the  mode  of  defeat 
ing  it,  by  sending  Mr.  Lincoln  through  incog.,  after 
cutting  the  telegraph  wires ;  all  which  was  exactly 
carried  into  effect  about  a  month  later.  From 
Philadelphia  I  telegraphed  G.  W.  Brown,  the  mayor 
of  Baltimore,  and  his  partner,  F.  W.  Brune  (my  old 
friend),  that  I  would  stay  the  night  there  to  discuss 
the  state  of  affairs  with  them.  That  night  Mayor 
Brown  came  to  Barnum's  Hotel  and  spent  the  even 
ing  with  me.  Though  full  of  local  Baltimore  feel- 


190  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

ing,  I  found  him  in  the  main  loyal  and  well  dis 
posed,  and  promising  to  do  all  in  his  power  to  keep 
the  peace  in  Baltimore ;  and  I  have  never  doubted 
his  sincerity.  When  our  troops  were  attacked  in 
the  streets  on  the  19th  of  April,  he  put  himself  at 
their  head,  and  did  everything  he  could  personally 
to  protect  them.  He  did  not  realize  the  full  mag 
nitude  of  the  crisis,  but  to  the  extent  of  his  light 
he  was  sound  and  honest.  I  remember  asking  his 
opinion  about  one  expedient  which  was  then  under 
discussion,  and  especially  advocated  by  the  Blairs ; 
it  was  for  the  United  States  to  purchase  the  slaves 
and  colonize  them  in  Central  America  and  the  West 
Indies.  His  answer  was  that  Maryland  wanted  every 
black  she  had,  and  more ;  and  that  the  large  body  of 
free  blacks  in  his  city  were  among  the  best  of  their 
laboring  population,  with  less  rioting,  less  drunken 
ness,  and  fewer  paupers  than  any  other  class ! 
Later,  Seward  had  Brown  imprisoned  at  Fort  War 
ren,  where  I  visited  him ;  and  when  released  had 
him  for  a  day  or  two  at  Milton. 

"  The  next  morning  we  went  on  to  Washington, 
and  took  possession  of  comfortable  rooms  on  the 
14th  Street  side  of  Willard's  Hotel,  in  the  large 
hall  of  which  the  Peace  Congress  was  in  session. 
The  alarm  was  so  general  that  the  city  was  not 
crowded  and  was  especially  bare  of  ladies  from 
abroad. 

"We  soon  plunged  into  our  work,  our  advent 
having  very  much  the  effect  of  a  bombshell  explo 
sion.  Before  our  arrival  the  talk  had  been  chiefly 


THE  BEGINNING  OF  WAR  191 

of  compromise,  and  some  progress  seemed  to  have 
been  made  in  preparing  the  way  for  a  surrender 
by  the  North  on  the  basis  of  the  Crittenden  Keso- 
lutions,  so-called  from  Senator  Crittenden,  who  in 
troduced  them  into  the  Senate.  They  practically 
surrendered  the  ground  which  the  North  and  West 
had  taken  against  the  extension  of  slavery,  and 
gave  up  the  advanced  position  for  freedom  which 
had  been  gained  after  long  years  of  conflict,  and 
which  was  represented  by  the  election  of  Lincoln. 
In  the  convention  were  Seddon,  of  Virginia,  and 
Euffin,  of  North  Carolina,  who  afterwards  were 
prominent  in  the  secession  ranks,  the  first  as  secre 
tary  of  war,  the  other,  I  think,  firing  the  first  gun 
against  Sumter.  I  am  not  sure  about  this,  but  Euf 
fin  was  distinguished  as  having  given  us  one  of  our 
best  anti-slavery  weapons.  When  judge,  he  had 
carried  the  claims  of  the  slave-owners  to  their  legiti 
mate  extreme,  and  decided  that  logically  the  system 
of  slavery  gave  the  master  the  supreme  right  to  use, 
to  punish,  and  if  he  thought  necessary  to  kill  his 
slave.1 

"  We  who  went  to  see  what  chance  there  was  of 
any  real  peace,  soon  found  that  the  Southerners  in 
the  convention  were  ready  to  receive  any  conces 
sions  from  us •'  in  the  hope  that  it  might  do  some 
good,'  but  to  commit  themselves  to  nothing. 

1  The  allusion  is  to  the  case  of  State  v.  Mann,  2  Devereux's  Re 
ports,  263  (1829),  an  indictment  for  assault  and  battery  upon  a  hired 
slave.  This  opinion  became  widely  known  by  Mrs.  Stowe's  citation 
of  it  in  her  Key  to  Uncle  Torrfs  Cabin.  —  ED. 


192  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

"  When  we  asked  the  border  States,  '  Suppose  the 
North  concedes  what  you  ask,  will  you  join  them  in 
forcing  the  South  to  obey  the  laws  ? '  (  No/  was 
the  reply,  '  but  we  should  hope  that  such  conces 
sions  would  lead  to  a  settlement,  and  we  will  do  all 
we  peaceably  can  to  bring  this  about.'  It  was 
simply  asking  the  majority  to  yield  unconditionally 
to  the  minority  all  the  great  principles  for  which  we 
had  contested. 

"  It  was  plain  to  us  then,  as  it  is  now,  that  such 
concessions  would  have  merely  demoralized  the 
North,  and  have  led  to  more  unreasonable  demands. 
Our  only  policy  was  then  to  stand  firm,  and  as  the 
4th  of  March  was  approaching,  when  the  weak  old 
Buchanan  and  his  Cabinet  would  go  out,  to  make 
all  the  time  we  could  in  the  Peace  Convention,  and 
avert  as  long  as  possible  the  onslaught  of  the  better 
prepared  South  which  was  plainly  impending.  Our 
first  move  in  the  congress  thus  set  them  back  from 
the  prompt  compromise  which  was  proposed.  We 
had  been  called  to  consider  what  remedies  could  be 
found  for  the  alleged  grievances  of  the  South.  So 
the  Massachusetts  delegates  introduced  a  resolution 
calling  upon  the  representatives  of  the  border  States, 
who  had  asked  us  to  meet  them,  for  '  a  statement 
of  the  grievances  which  we  were  asked  to  redress.' 
This  led  to  long  debates,  and  some  of  us  who  had 
not  the  gift  of  speaking,  and  could  read  the  reports 
of  the  convention  in  print,  turned  our  thoughts 
naturally  to  other  modes  of  saving  the  Union. 

"  One  of   these   schemes  soon  suggested   itself. 


THE  BEGINNING  OF  WAR  193 

Some  little  time  after  our  arrival,  I  met  quite  a 
large  party  at  dinner,  who  I  remember  were  much 
animated  by  the  report  of  General  Dix's  telegram, 
just  then  published,  to  the  collector  of  Pensacola, 
— ( If  any  man  tries  to  haul  down  the  American 
flag,  shoot  him  on  the  spot/  Sent  to  a  post  com 
pletely  in  the  hands  of  the  rebels,  and  unsupported 
by  any  force,  it  was  rather  a  cheap  piece  of  patriotic 
eloquence ;  but  it  answered  its  purpose,  for  the  day, 
of  showing  the  right  spirit  in  one  of  Buchanan's 
Cabinet,  and  it  has  since  helped  to  put  General  Dix 
into  the  governor's  chair  of  New  York.  At  the 
same  dinner  W.  H.  Aspinwall,  who,  though  not  on 
the  delegation  of  his  State  (New  York),  was  an  in 
terested  and  very  influential  visitor  to  the  Capitol, 
took  me  aside  and  told  me  of  a  late  conversation 
with  General  Scott  —  then  at  the  head  of  our  army 
—  in  which  Scott  had  confided  to  him  the  great 
straits  to  which  Major  Anderson  and  the  garrison 
of  Fort  Sumter  were  already  reduced,  the  small 
supplies  of  ammunition  and  provisions,  and  the  im 
possibility  of  so  small  a  force  making  any  successful 
resistance  in  case  of  attack.  They  were  in  fact 
dependent  from  day  to  day  upon  the  Charleston 
market  for  their  meat.  We  both  agreed  that  it  was 
an  easy  thing  to  reinforce  Fort  Sumter,  and  we  there 
decided  to  call  on  General  Scott  after  elaborating 
our  plans,  and  propose  to  undertake  it,  —  Aspin 
wall  having  already  told  me  that  Lieutenant  Fox, 
an  able  and  experienced  naval  officer,  was  ready  to 
lead  the  enterprise,  and  was  confident  of  success.  I 


194  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

may  here  mention  that  I  had  not  before  this  heard 
of  the  man  who  so  soon  afterwards,  as  assistant 
secretary  of  the  navy,  was  to  play  one  of  the  most 
effective  though  least  showy  parts  in  the  great 
struggle  then  impending. 

"  The  plan,  which  we  agreed  upon,  was  a  double 
one,  so  as  to  have  two  chances.  First :  we  proposed 
to  buy  a  moderate-sized  freighting  vessel,  put  on 
board  of  her  as  stores  the  articles  of  most  pressing 
necessity,  and  to  have  her  enter  Charleston,  which 
port  was  still  open,  seeking  a  cotton  freight ;  but  as 
she  passed  the  fort  she  was  to  run  under  its  guns, 
either  going  in  or  out  as  the  best  chance  offered. 
Nobody  but  the  captain  was  to  know  our  plans,  and 
the  consignees  were  to  be  first-class  secessionists, 
with  whom  the  Boston  owner  was  to  begin  a  cor 
respondence  at  once,  so  as  to  divert  suspicion.  The 
mails  were  still  open  to  Major  Anderson,  and  some 
time  after  this  Lieutenant  Fox  paid  him  a  visit 
under  secret  orders  from  Washington.  In  this  way 
everything  but  men  could  be  thrown  in,  and  by 
giving  Major  Anderson  notice  of  our  intention  and 
establishing  a  signal,  he  would  have  been  ready  to 
protect  the  ship  and  land  her  stores,  and  it  was 
even  thought  that  part  of  the  ship's  crew  might 
enlist  after  reaching  there,  and  thus  add  to  the 
little  garrison. 

"  Plan  No.  2  was  to  fit  out  one  or  more  propel 
lers  ostensibly  for  Japan,  load  them  with  stores,  and 
let  each  take  in  tow  a  couple  of  coasting  schooners 
loaded  below  and  on  deck  with  Manila  hemp,  one 


THE  BEGINNING  OF  WAR  195 

on  each  side  of  the  propeller,  thus  protecting  her 
from  shot,  excepting  those  fired  directly  in  front. 
Fox  and  a  couple  of  hundred  soldiers  were  to  be 
added  at  the  last  moment.  His  experience  in  the 
navy  convinced  him  that  the  untried  gunners  in 
the  rebel  batteries,  firing  at  a  moving  object,  would 
not  disable  either  of  them,  and  he  stood  ready  to 
lead  with  the  reinforcing  troops.  Subsequent  expe 
rience  in  the  Potomac  and  elsewhere  proved  that 
the  chances  were  very  slight  of  any  disaster ;  but  if 
the  danger  had  been  far  greater  the  exigency  fully 
warranted  the  experiment.  The  steam  frigate  Pow- 
hatan  was  to  convoy  them  down  to  the  entrance 
of  Charleston  Harbor,  or  as  far  as  her  draught 
of  water  would  permit,  serving  as  a  transport  for 
the  troops  until  transferred  to  the  little  propellers. 
They  were  to  be  bought,  and  sent  at  once  to  the 
Delaware  Breakwater,  and  the  schooners  were  to  sail 
down  at  once  to  Charleston  bar,  they  requiring  very 
little  time  for  preparing  cargoes  of  hemp. 

"  By  appointment  with  General  Scott,  Mr.  Aspin- 
wall  and  I  called  upon  him  on  the  evening  of  Feb 
ruary  the  7th,  and  we  remained  with  him  until 
after  midnight.  As  we  developed  our  plans  the 
general's  spirits  seemed  to  rise,  and  when  we  had 
finished  he  marched  up  and  down  his  office,  crying 
out,  '  Qa  ira,  c,a  ira ! '  It  was  agreed  that  Aspinwall 
should  start  the  next  morning  for  Philadelphia, 
where  he  knew  of  some  propellers,  inspect  them  and 
see  what  they  were  fit  for,  and  learn  their  price, 
while  I  was  to  write  to  G.  B.  Upton,  in  Boston,  and 


196  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

prepare  him  on  receipt  of  a  telegram  to  go  ahead. 
At  this  time  all  the  telegraph  offices  in  Washington 
were  filled  with  (  secesh,'  so  I  had  arranged  with 
Governor  Andrew,  before  leaving  Boston,  a  com 
mercial  cipher  code  under  which,  using  cotton  bales 
and  other  terms  to  cover  our  political  meaning,  I 
could,  through  J.  M.  Forbes  &  Co.,  communicate 
with  him  without  danger  of  our  plans  leaking  out. 
Aspinwall  and  I  left  the  good  old  general  and  his 
aide,  Colonel  Keyes,  after  midnight,  in  full  faith  that 
when  I  saw  the  general  the  next  day  I  should  get 
the  final  authority  to  go  ahead,  and  we  returned  to 
the  hotel,  he  to  prepare  for  starting  in  the  early 
train  for  Philadelphia,  and  I  to  write  my  letters  for 
the  morning  mail.  I  had  selected  G.  B.  Upton, 
then  in  his  prime,  as  the  most  active  and  efficient 
agent  to  do  the  business  in  Boston,  and  it  was 
agreed  that  nobody  outside  the  general's  office,  ex 
cept  ourselves,  Upton,  and  Fox,  was  to  be  admitted 
to  our  councils.  The  captains  of  the  vessels  were 
to  be  carefully  selected,  and  were  not  to  be  in 
formed  of  our  plans  until  the  last  moment.  I  spent 
the  best  part  of  the  night  in  arranging  the  tele 
graphic  ciphers  to  meet  the  new  conditions,  and  in 
writing  to  Upton  instructions  which  were  at  once  to 
be  carried  into  effect  when  he  should  receive  my 
telegram ;  and  the  next  day  (I  think  at  about  ten 
A.  M.)  I  went  by  appointment  to  General  Scott's 
headquarters.  To  my  infinite  disgust  I  found  him 
closeted  with  Captain  Ward  of  the  navy  (afterward 
killed  on  the  Potomac),  who  had  somehow  got  wind 


THE  BEGINNING  OF  WAR  197 

of  an  intended  movement,  and  claimed  that  it  ought 
to  be  intrusted  to  the  navy.  As  Toucey  was  at  the 
head  of  the  Navy  Department,  and  his  loyalty  was 
more  than  doubtful,  and  moreover  as  secrecy  and 
promptness  were  totally  incompatible  with  red  tape 
and  naval  etiquette,  I  saw  at  once  that  the  game 
was  up,  and  I  told  Colonel  Keyes  that  it  would  be 
worse  than  useless  for  us  to  go  on  with  our  scheme 
in  combination  with  the  navy,  as  suggested.  As- 
pinwall  and  I  had  offered,  for  the  sake  of  secrecy 
(the  sine  qua  non  of  success  in  such  an  enterprise), 
to  find  the  needful  funds  or  credit,  if  fully  author 
ized  by  General  Scott  to  go  ahead,  and  to  trust  to 
being  reimbursed  by  government ;  but  we  con 
sidered  it  indispensable  that  the  whole  control  of 
the  details  and  preliminary  arrangements  should  be 
left  with  us.  So  our  promising  scheme  fell  through, 
and  thus  ended  one  of  the  efforts  of  a  peace  com 
missioner  to  save  the  Union  ! 

"Later,  about  April  10th,  1861,  Mr.  Fox  per 
suaded  President  Lincoln  to  let  him  undertake  a 
similar  project  in  the  steamer  Baltic ;  but  partly 
through  Seward's  double-faced  diplomacy,  and  partly 
from  being  postponed  till  quite  too  late,  it  had  lit 
tle  chance  of  success.  The  rebel  batteries  had  been 
immensely  increased  around  the  fort,  and  the  rebels 
got  notice  of  the  intended  movement,  and  opened 
fire  before  Fox  and  his  transports  arrived  there. 
The  Powhatan  was,  I  think  by  Seward's  interference, 
diverted  from,  or  certainly  delayed  in,  joining  the 
expedition,  and  a  gale  of  wind  destroyed  what  little 


198  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

chance  of  success  remained.  Fort  Sumter  fell,  and 
when  the  gale  abated  Fox  had  the  melancholy  sat 
isfaction  of  receiving  on  board  the  Baltic  Major 
Anderson  and  his  garrison,  who  had  been  obliged 
to  make  terms  of  surrender !  Had  the  20th  of 
February,  1861,  opened  with  the  news  that  a  suf 
ficient  garrison,  well  supplied  with  powder  and  pro 
visions,  had  been  thrown  into  Fort  Sumter,  it  might 
have  changed  the  history  of  the  war. 

"  While  the  Peace  Congress  was  slowly  talking 
against  time,  and  coming  to  no  conclusions,  Wash 
ington  was,  of  course,  the  focus  of  the  greatest 
excitement.  Rebel  State  after  State  was  seceding, 
a  rebel  Congress  was  sitting  at  Montgomery,  in  Ala 
bama,  and  the  North  was  waiting  for  the  inau 
guration  of  Lincoln  before  making  any  movement. 
Governor  Andrew  was  taking  active  measures  to 
organize  and  equip  his  militia.  Seward  was  pro 
phesying  that  in  sixty  days  the  trouble  would  be 
over,  and  was  negotiating  with  the  rebels,  and 
promising  that  Fort  Sumter  should  not  be  rein 
forced.  We  in  Washington  were  prepared  each 
morning  to  see  the  rebel  flags  flying  in  that  city, 
the  Treasury  sacked,  and  Congress,  still  in  session, 
broken  up. 

"Scott  had  less  than  one  thousand  men  under 
him.  Among  other  dangers  was  one  of  form  which 
at  one  time  looked  threatening.  Breckinridge,  the 
Vice-President,  was  a  well-known  rebel,  and  Jeff 
Davis  still  retained  his  seat  in  the  Senate,  with 
some  other  similar  villains.  On  a  certain  day  in 


THE  BEGINNING  OF  WAR  199 

February  it  was  the  duty  of  the  Vice-President,  as 
president  of  the  Senate,  to  march  down  at  the  head 
of  that  body  from  their  chamber  to  the  House  of 
Representatives,  carrying  with  them  the  electoral 
votes  which  had  previously  been  deposited  with 
them  for  that  purpose.  Until  these  votes  had  been 
opened  in  the  presence  of  Congress,  and  counted, 
and  the  result  declared,  Lincoln  could  not  become 
the  President  under  the  forms  of  the  Constitution ; 
and  in  case  this  form  could  be  prevented,  it  was 
thought  possible  that  the  rebels  might  claim  that 
Buchanan  and  his  Cabinet  still  held  power.  It  was 
rumored  that  there  was  a  plot  to  seize  the  ballots 
in  the  long  and  narrow  halls  through  which  the 
Senate  passed  nearly  the  whole  length  of  the  Capi 
tol;  and  with  the  traitor  Breckinridge  as  the  bearer 
of  these  ballots  it  would  have  been  easy  to  play  into 
the  hands  of  the  conspirators.  Various  plans  were 
discussed  for  protecting  ourselves  against  this  dan 
ger  (one,  I  remember,  being  to  fill  the  vacant  spaces 
in  the  Capitol  with  trusty  men  specially  sent  on 
from  the  North) ;  but  the  rebels  were  much  nearer 
than  the  loyal  States;  Washington,  and  even  the 
Capitol  under  a  rebel  Vice-President,  was  full  of 
traitors,  and  such  a  plan  involving  so  many  men 
was  likely  to  be  discovered,  and  might  easily  have 
been  turned  against  us  by  substituting  the  Balti 
more  and  Washington  roughs,  or  even  the  Virginia 
militia,  who  were  right  across  the  river,  for  our 
Northern  allies ;  so  it  was  given  up.  Another  ex 
pedient  on  which  we  did  rely  somewhat  was  this : 


200  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

Captain  W.  H.  Franklin,  of  Pennsylvania,  a  loyal 
and  efficient  West  Point  officer  (afterwards  major- 
general),  was  in  charge  of  the  Capitol  extension, 
and  had  under  him  over  one  hundred  mechanics, 
many  of  them  Northern  men.  He  had  lately  called 
on  me  in  response  to  an  introductory  letter  from 
Captain  W.  H.  Swift.  As  a  last  resource,  I  had  a 
free  conference  with  him,  and  he  agreed  to  be  on 
hand  early  with  his  workmen  on  the  day  of  count 
ing  the  votes,  and  to  make  sure  that  no  body  of 
conspirators  was  collecting  in  the  halls  or  corridors 
of  the  Capitol,  with  every  inch  of  which  he  and 
his  men  were  familiar.  The  day  passed  without 
disturbance,  and  my  story  is  only  interesting  as 
showing  one  of  the  many  alarms  of  the  period. 

"Just  before  the  4th  of  March  our  Peace  Con 
gress  adjourned.  It  had  met  with  all  sorts  of  criti 
cisms,  and  little  praise.  The  '  Tribune,'  I  think, 
called  it  a  convocation  of  old  hens  sitting  on  a  nest 
of  eggs,  some  of  which  would  hatch  out  vipers, 
while  most  were  addled.  The  rebels  of  all  hues, 
from  copper-colored  to  deep  black,  abused  the  Mas 
sachusetts  delegation  without  stint,  laying  upon  us 
the  blame  of  defeating  all  chance  of  peace.  When 
my  old  friend  Erastus  Corning,  during  the  war, 
charged  upon  my  devoted  head  the  whole  sin  of 
bringing  on  the  war,  which  he  said  I  might  have 
averted  by  influencing  to  compromise  the  Massa 
chusetts  delegation,  I  begged  him  to  give  me  a  cer 
tificate  to  that  effect,  promising  to  have  it  framed 
handsomely  and  handed  down  as  an  heirloom  for 


THE  BEGINNING  OF  WAR  201 

my  descendants  to  boast  of !  Corning  was  a  strong 
Democrat,  and  the  leader  of  the  New  York  delega 
tion." 

Mr.  Charles  Sedgwick's1  comment  on  the  con 
vention  is  as  follows  :  — 

"  It  is  supposed  that  your  convention  will  proceed 
to  save  the  country  at  two  o'clock  precisely,  and 
will  immediately  proceed  in  a  body  to  the  Patent 
Office  and  patent  the  process.  It  is  supposed  that 
it  will  sell  well  in  Mexico  and  Central  America." 

It  is  a  twice-told  tale,  —  that  of  the  opening  of 
the  war.  The  rush  of  feeling  through  the  North 
can  only  be  understood  when  one  realizes  that  for 
years  the  people  of  that  section  had  been  forced  by 
political  divisions  at  home  to  accept  compromise 
after  compromise  with  the  slave  power,  which  like 
the  horse-leech's  daughter  was  ever  crying,  "  Give, 
give  !  "  The  sight  of  leaders  perpetually  knocking 
under  to  their  opponents,  and  all  for  political  cold 
scraps  and  bare  bones,  is  not  one  that  makes  any 
people's  temper  the  milder ;  and  the  incessant  kicks 
(undoubtedly  invited  by  the  Northern  concessions) 
which  all  Southern  newspapers  and  speakers  felt  at 
liberty  to  administer,  openly  to  their  enemies,  cov 
ertly  to  their  allies,  at  the  North,  had  bred  a  spirit 
of  bitterness  scarcely  to  be  conceived  of  in  these 
days  when  our  orators  "  sprinkle  battlefields  with 
rose-water." 

No  wonder,  then,  that  the  news  of  a  Southern 

1  Representative  from  New  York  State. 


202  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

attack  on  a  United  States  fortress  had  only  to  be 
flashed  through  the  North  to  fuse  all  differences 
and  set  ablaze  the  fire  so  long  smouldering.  Many 
Northern  people  had  no  clear  conception  of  the 
evils  of  slavery,  nor  were  all  aware  that  this  in 
herited  curse  was  at  the  bottom  of  the  strife,  but 
all  understood  an  attack  on  the  Union. 

I  find  among  my  father's  papers  an  article  which 
appeared  in  the  "  Louisville  Courier  "  just  after  the 
first  battle  of  Bull  Run.  When  it  is  recollected 
that  it  was  one  of  many  similar  in  character,  it  can 
be  readily  conceived  what  sort  of  feeling  articles 
such  as  this  excited  in  the  North.  We  trust  that 
we  can  laugh  at  such  effusions  now ;  then  the  effect 
was  serious  enough. 

"  This  has  been  called  a  fratricidal  war  by  some, 
by  others  an  irrepressible  conflict  between  freedom 
and  slavery.  We  respectfully  take  issue  with  the 
authors  of  both  these  ideas.  We  are  not  the  bro 
thers  of  the  Yankees,  and  the  slavery  question  is 
merely  a  pretext,  not  the  cause  of  the  war.  The 
true  irrepressible  conflict  lies  fundamentally  in  the 
hereditary  hostility,  the  sacred  animosity,  the  eter 
nal  antagonism  between  the  two  races  engaged. 

"  The  Norman  cavalier  cannot  brook  the  vulgar 
familiarity  of  the  Saxon  Yankee,  while  the  latter 
is  continually  devising  some  plan  to  bring  down 
his  aristocratic  neighbor  to  his  own  detested  level. 
Thus  was  the  contest  waged  in  the  old  United 
States.  So  long  as  Dickinson  doughfaces  were  to 
be  bought,  and  Cochrane  cowards  to  be  frightened, 


THE  BEGINNING  OF  WAR  203 

so  long  was  the  Union  tolerable  to  Southern  men ; 
but  when,  owing  to  divisions  in  our  ranks,  the 
Yankee  hirelings  placed  one  of  their  own  spawn 
over  us,  political  connection  became  unendurable, 
and  separation  necessary  to  preserve  our  self-respect. 

"  As  our  Norman  kinsmen  in  England,  always  a 
minority,  have  ruled  their  Saxon  countrymen  in 
political  vassalage  up  to  the  present  day,  so  have 
we,  the  '  slave  oligarchs,'  governed  the  Yankees 
until  within  a  twelvemonth.  We  framed  the  Con 
stitution,  for  seventy  years  moulded  the  policy  of 
the  government,  and  placed  our  own  men,  or 
6  Northern  men  with  Southern  principles,'  in  power. 

"  On  the  6th  of  November,  1860,  the  Puritans 
emancipated  themselves,  and  are  now  in  violent  in 
surrection  against  their  former  owners.  This  insane 
holiday  freak  will  not  last  long,  however,  for,  das 
tards  in  fight,  and  incapable  of  self-government, 
they  will  inevitably  again  fall  under  the  control  of 
the  superior  race.  A  few  more  Bull  Kun  thrash 
ings  will  bring  them  once  more  under  the  yoke  as 
docile  as  the  most  loyal  of  our  Ethiopian  '  chat 
tels.'  " 

To  return  to  my  father's  notes  as  to  what  was 
happening  in  Massachusetts  :  — 

"  At  this  time  Governor  Andrew  was  getting  his 
four  thousand  soldiers  overcoats,  which  was  con 
sidered  as  taking  a  great  responsibility.  I  need  not 
say  that  I  encouraged  him  in  this,  and  every  other 
measure  of  prompt  preparation,  and  when  the  call 
for  troops  came  on  Monday,  the  14th  of  April,  by 


204  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

telegraph,  it  will  be  remembered  that  he  was  the 
first  to  respond,  and  that  on  Tuesday  he  had  al 
ready  collected  in  Boston  three  or  four  regiments 
reasonably  well  prepared  to  march,  and  not  merely 
a  paper  force. 

"  On  the  12th  or  13th  of  April,  when  we  heard 
of  the  actual  attack  going  on  against  Fort  Sumter, 
I  had  under  my  charge  a  steamer  bound  for  China, 
which  had  been  disabled  in  a  gale  off  Hatteras,  and 
had  reached  Norfolk  with  her  rudder  crippled.  I, 
of  course,  considered  Norfolk  an  enemy's  port,  and 
at  once  telegraphed  Captain  Morris  (agent  of  the 
underwriters)  to  go  thither  without  delay  from  New 
York  and  get  the  vessel  out  at  all  hazards,  which 
he  did ;  taking  her  into  Baltimore,  however,  which, 
as  it  was  on  the  point  of  rising  up  for  the  rebels, 
I  considered  little  better  than  Norfolk.  So  my 
partner,  E.  J.  Hale,  went  to  Baltimore  ;  and  some 
how  he  got  her  out  of  that  port  on  the  morning  of 
the  19th  of  April,  the  day  they  were  firing  on  our 
troops  in  the  streets  of  that  city." 

It  was  to  this  action  that  Wendell  Phillips,  in  one 
of  his  invectives  in  1867,  referred  as  follows  :  — 

"  If  this  government  had  been  as  wise  as  the 
merchant  in  his  counting-room  we  should  have 
saved  to  the  treasury  $2,000,000,000;  and  two 
hundred  thousand  men  who  are  sleeping  in  honor 
able  graves  would  now  be  living.  A  merchant  in 
our  city  had  a  vessel  at  Norfolk,  Va.,  when  the  war 
broke  out,  and  the  first  thing  he  did  was  to  tele 
graph,  *  Bring  my  ship  north  of  Mason  and  Dixon's 


THE  BEGINNING  OF  WAR  205 

line.'  And  they  brought  her.  He  saved  his  vessel. 
But  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy  heard  the  first  gun, 
and  he  thought  of  his  office,  of  red  tape,  of  some 
body  doing  this,  and  the  other  body  doing  that, 
and  he  left  $3,000,000  worth  of  ships  there  and 
the  Confederacy  took  them.  Now,  I  call  that  mer 
chant  a  statesman ;  and  I  call  that  Secretary  of  the 
Navy  a  fool." 

To  return  to  the  "merchant's  "  memories  of  those 
times  :  — 

"  When  Sumter  was  fired  upon  I  was  already  in 
close  rapport  with  Governor  Andrew,  going  to  the 
state  house  daily  and  acting  as  adviser,  or  clerk, 
or  better  still  as  physician  by  carrying  off  the  gov 
ernor  to  dine,  a  ceremony  he  was  ready  to  postpone 
until  midnight,  unless  some  friend  captured  him 
for  this  purpose.  While  waiting  for  him  one  day 
I  heard  an  insatiate  office-seeker  insist  on  having 
five  minutes.  '  My  time,'  said  Governor  Andrew, 
( is  taken  up  every  moment  (looking  at  his  watch) 
until  midnight.'  'Say  five  minutes  after  twelve 
to-night,'  said  the  enemy,  '  and  I  '11  wait.' 

"  Perhaps  my  connection  with  vessels  and  rail 
roads  led  the  governor  to  put  into  my  hands  the 
first  arrangements  for  moving  the  troops  South,  for 
which  we  were  expecting  orders.  The  course  pur 
sued  in  making  these  arrangements  shows  how  small 
an  amount  of  red  tape  was  needed,  at  a  pinch,  in 
those  early  days  of  the  war.  The  letters  from  Gen 
eral  Scott  to  the  governor  had  indicated  an  all-rail 
route  to  Baltimore  for  the  two  regiments  destined 


206  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

for  the  relief  of  Fortress  Monroe.  But  I  remem 
bered  well  President  Felton's  warning  as  to  the  in 
tentions  of  the  rebels  to  burn  his  bridges,  and  I 
saw  the  danger  of  any  delay  in  garrisoning  Fortress 
Monroe,  then  held  by  old  Colonel  Dimmick  with 
only  a  couple  of  small  companies  of  regulars  of 
about  sixty  men  each,  —  hardly  enough  to  man  the 
gates,  much  less  the  ramparts.  Seeing  the  impor 
tance  of  using  water  conveyance  I  took  my  brother, 
Captain  Forbes,  into  my  counsels,  and  drove  with 
him  to  the  chart  store  for  a  large  chart  of  the  coast 
of  the  Chesapeake  (which  nearly  filled  the  cab), 
then  to  the  state  house,  to  show  the  governor  the 
absurdity  of  trusting  to  hiring  steamers  in  a  half 
rebel  city  like  Baltimore,  even  if  we  got  the  troops 
through  to  that  place  without  interruption.  He 
was  beset  by  crowds  on  all  sides.  After  studying 
the  map  and  General  Scott's  letter,  and  hearing  our 
arguments,  he  quickly  said,  f  We  will  take  the  re 
sponsibility  and  send  them  direct  by  water.'  So  we 
made  all  arrangements  to  send  this  important  rein 
forcement  by  sea,  one  regiment  from  Boston  direct, 
the  other  from  Fall  Kiver.  I  had  first,  however, 
passed  on  to  Colonel  Keyes,  who  was  superintend 
ing  the  movement  of  troops  at  General  Scott's  head 
quarters  in  New  York,  President  Felton's  suggestion 
as  to  the  water  route." 


THE  BEGINNING  OF  WAR  207 

"  TELEGRAM. 

"BOSTON,  April  16,  1861. 

"  COLONEL   KEYES,   General  Scott's  Headquarters, 

N.  Y.: 

"Pray  examine  chart  of  the  Chesapeake.  Con 
sider  availability  of  Annapolis  for  rendezvous  of 
our  Massachusetts  troops  bound  for  Washington. 

"  J.  M.  FORBES. 

"  General  Butler's  claim  to  be  the  originator  of 
this  plan  is  told  elsewhere. 

Then  followed  telegrams  for  transport :  — 


.. 


"  BOSTON,  April  16,  1861. 

"  To  COLONEL  BORDEN  OR  BOAT  AGENT,  Fall  Eiver : 
"  On  what  terms  will  you  send  eight  hundred 
Massachusetts  volunteers  hence  by  rail,  and  by  your 
regular  steamers,  to  Fort  Monroe,  Old  Point  Com 
fort  ?  How  much  more,  if  required,  thence  to 
Annapolis  or  Washington,  government  warranting 
against  war  risk  —  you  find  rations  ?  Considerable 
camp  equipage  included.  Leave  here  to-morrow 
morning.  Answer  immediately. 

"  J.  M.  FORBES. 

"  Massachusetts  was  so  quick  in  collecting  her 
quota,  that  the  troops  were  waiting  several  hours  in 
Boston  before  any  actual  orders  came  to  dispatch 
them. 

"  Tuesday,  April  16th,  was  a  stormy  easterly  day, 
and  I  had  stayed  in  town  for  a  dinner  party  (prob- 


208  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

ably  at  Horace  Gray's,  in  Summer  Street).  I  had 
already  got  the  terms  of  one  of  the  Baltimore 
steamers  (the  S.  K.  Spaulding);  but  we  had  given 
up  any  expectation  of  orders  for  that  day,  —  it  be 
ing  after  four  p.  M.,  —  when  I  felt  a  hand  on  my 
shoulder  as  I  sat  writing  in  my  little  den  at  the  City 
Exchange,  and  heard  Colonel  Henry  Lee's  voice  — 
he  was  then  on  Governor  Andrew's  staff  —  saying, 
'  The  orders  have  come,  we  must  send  off  the  first 
troops  to-night.'  I  sprang  to  the  window  to  see 
what  the  weather  was,  and  said  at  once,  '  It  is  too 
late  to  start  to-night  in  this  storm.'  I  sent,  how 
ever,  a  messenger  to  Colonel  Borden  by  the  five 
p.  M.  train,  and  then  hunted  up  George  B.  Upton, 
and  got  him  started  out  to  hurry  up  the  Spaul 
ding,  then  lying  in  Boston.  Having  completed  the 
arrangements  with  the  Fall  River  steamer,  State  of 
Maine,  as  far  as  was  possible  that  night,  I  went  to 
the  dinner  party. 

"  I  find  the  following  telegram  of  the  next  day 
in  my  book :  — 

"  BOSTON,  April  17, 1861. 

"To  COLONEL  BORDEN,  OR  BOAT  AGENT,  Fall  Kiver : 
"Letter  received.  Seen  Crowninshield.  Four 
hundred  and  fifty  men  leave  at  two  o'clock.  Want 
State  of  Maine  ready  on  terms  proposed.  Men  will 
take  cooked  bread  and  meat.  Put  in  other  things, 
including  salt  provisions  for  a  week,  and  hard  bread 
at  actual  cost  —  balance  to  be  landed.  Will  she  be 
ready  ?  J.  M.  FORBES. 


THE  BEGINNING  OF  WAR  209 

"  FALL  RIVER,  April  17, 1861. 
"  To  J.  M.  FORBES,  Boston  : 

"  Will  get  the  boat  ready  probably  before  morn 
ing.  Will  do  it  as  soon  as  possible.  Are  now 
coaling  her.  RICHARD  BORDEN. 

"  BOSTON,  April  17,  1861. 

"  To  COLONEL  BORDEN,  Fall  Kiver : 

"  We  send  the  four  hundred  men  at  two.  Count 
upon  your  hurrying  up.  Must  go  right  on  board 
and  start  to-night,  even  at  some  extra  cost.  Massa 
chusetts  must  keep  up  her  end,  and  you  are  the  man 
to  do  it.  J.  M.  FORBES. 

"  FALL  RIVER,  April  17, 1861. 

"  To  J.  M.  FORBES,  Boston  : 

"  I  hope  to  get  the  State  of  Maine  ready  to  go 
this  evening.  RICHARD  BORDEN. 

"  That  afternoon  (Wednesday  the  17th),  we  got 
off  one  regiment  by  the  Spaulding,  and,  by  an  extra 
train,  the  other  for  Fall  River,  where  it  was  shipped 
by  the  State  of  Maine,  with  my  old  friend,  Captain 
Oliver  Eldridge  (formerly  commander  of  the  clipper 
Coquette),  put  in  charge.1  Another  regiment  was 
sent  by  land  route,  marching  in  fine  order  through 
New  York,  where  it  produced  a  great  effect  in  giv 
ing  confidence  and  spirit  to  the  people  by  such  a 
show  of  promptness. 

1  Captain  Eldridge  says  in  a  letter  dated  November,  1898 :  "  A 
telegram  came,  asking  me  to  take  command  of  the  State  of  Maine, 
but  not  until  long  afterwards  did  I  know  that  Mr.  Forbes  had  sug 
gested  that  I  should  be  chosen  for  the  duty."  —  ED. 


210  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

"  In  one  particular  of  this  relief  of  Fortress  Mon 
roe  red  tape  was  allowed  to  prevail,  and  might  well 
have  caused  the  failure  of  the  expedition.  That 
Wednesday  morning,  while  the  troops  were  getting 
ready  to  take  the  Fall  River  train,  I  occupied  myself 
at  the  governor's  room  in  drawing  up  instructions 
to  Captain  Eldridge  about  the  voyage,  urging  haste, 
and  suggesting  certain  precautions  as  to  having 
guns  loaded,  and  looking  out  for  interruptions  when 
he  approached  the  Chesapeake,  where  the  rebels,  by 
an  armed  steamer  from  Richmond,  might  easily 
intercept  them.  I  had  got  the  orders  into  shape 
when  unluckily  one  of  the  governor's  aides,  who  was 
somewhat  of  a  martinet,  and  a  student  in  military 
affairs,  intercepted  me.  '  What ! '  said  he, '  put  our 
troops  under  the  orders  of  the  transport  captain  ! 
It  is  against  all  military  rule,  and  will  never  do.  It 
is  utterly  irregular  !  The  orders  must  go  to  the 
colonel  of  the  regiment.9  This  colonel  happened 
to  be  an  entirely  inexperienced  militia  officer,  while 
Captain  Eldridge  was  one  of  the  finest  sailors  who 
ever  trod  a  deck,  true  as  steel,  and  full  of  courage 
and  decision.  It  was  all  sound  red  tape  doctrine 
that  had  been  spoken  ;  I  could  only  wish  that  that 
aide  had  been  in  some  hotter  place ;  and  though 
it  went  against  my  stomach,  with  my  customary 
flexibility  I  gave  up  my  common-sense  plan,  and 
accordingly  addressed  the  orders  to  the  militia  col 
onel.  Mark  the  result.  Captain  Eldridge  steamed 
to  New  York  to  coal  up,  with  only  450  men  aboard, 
a  number  much  below  the  steamer's  real  capacity, 


THE  BEGINNING  OF  WAR  211 

when  the  rough  water  disturbed  some  of  their  im 
aginations.  A  council  of  war  was  called,  and  the 
country  doctor  who  acted  as  surgeon  gave  the  sage 
opinion  that  the  steamer  was  overloaded.  So  she 
waited  further  orders  in  New  York.  On  my  arrival 
in  town  I  was  greeted  with  a  telegram  from  Colonel 
Borden,  giving  me  this  news.  This  time  the  red 
tape  was  cut  roughly,  in  the  unmistakable  terms  of 
the  governor's  order  through  me  :  — 

"  BOSTON,  April  18,  1861. 

"  COLONEL  BORDEN,  70  West  Street,  New  York : 

"  Have  seen  governor  and  adjutant-general.  No 
further  orders  for  Colonel  Packard.  Push  steamer 
on  without  stopping.  Massachusetts  must  be  first 
on  the  ground.  Telegraph  when  she  passes  Sandy 
Hook ;  also  weather.  J.  M.  FORBES. 

"  The  State  of  Maine  continued  on  her  way,  ar 
riving  at  the  fort  the  next  morning,  to  the  great 
joy  of  Colonel  Dimmick,  a  fine  old  West  Point 
soldier,  who,  it  is  said,  almost  shed  tears  on  seeing 
the  reinforcements  pour  in  upon  his  ill-defended 
post,  —  the  most  strategic  point  on  our  whole  coast, 
commanding  as  it  did  the  entrance  to  Baltimore, 
Washington,  and  Richmond. 

"  The  Spaulding,  from  Boston,  arrived  safely, 
after  the  State  of  Maine.  Captain  Eldridge  related 
that  while  disembarking  his  troops  the  Virginia 
planters  expressed  great  indignation  at  seeing  the 
sacred  soil  thus  trampled  upon  by  ( Lincoln's  hire- 


212  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

lings/  and  told  him,  with  ominous  shakings  of  the 
head,  that  they  would  never  go  back  home.  '  No/ 
replied  Eldridge  ;  '  we  like  the  looks  of  the  country 
down  here,  and  we  never  intend  to  let  it  go.' 

"  After  unnecessary  delay,  one  of  the  regiments 
was  put  on  board  the  frigate  Powhatan,  and  reached 
the  navy  yard,  Portsmouth,  opposite  Norfolk,  after 
dark,  and  just  too  late  to  prevent  the  scuttling  of 
the  frigate  Merrimac." 

Work  at  high  pressure  continued  for  my  father. 
He  took  the  part  of  deputy  commissary  of  Massa 
chusetts,  as  will  be  shown  by  the  following  letters 
and  notes.  The  first  is  amusing,  from  Governor 
Andrew's  terse  indorsement.  Time  was  precious 
just  then. 

(Private.)  BOSTON,  April  23, 1861. 

To  His  EXCELLENCY,  JOHN  A.  ANDREW  : 

My  dear  Sir,  —  To  give  you  an  idea  of  the  time 
it  will  take  to  get  good  hard  bread  for  shipping  : 
I  should  think  for  a  month's  supply  to  our  Massa 
chusetts  troops  now  in  the  field  it  would  need  at 
least  three  days  from  the  time  the  order  was  given 
to  do  it  properly  —  possibly  more. 

Other  things  can  be  had  quicker,  but  I  should 
like,  if  you  think  proper,  to  have  an  order  by  the 
bearer  to  provide  a  month's  supply  of  hard  bread 
for  4000  men.  By  the  time  this  is  ready  you 
will  have  plenty  of  troops  here  and  an  order  for 
them,  and  with  the  bread  can  send  other  things  to 
match. 


THE  BEGINNING  OF  WAR  213 

I  don't  want  to  interfere  with  the  duties  of  your 
commissary-general  that  is  to  be,  but  some  things 
take  time,  and  bread  ought  to  be  ordered  to-day. 

You  cannot  be  too  careful  in  getting  a  working 
business  man  for  the  commissariat.  It  will  save 
the  State  thousands  of  dollars,  and  save  us  our 
credit  when  accounts  come  to  be  settled  after  the 
enthusiasm  boils  past. 

Yours,  J.  M.  FORBES. 

At  your  Excellency's  request  the  Committee  on 
the  Militia  have  considered  the  within  proposition. 
We  unanimously  recommend  that  Mr.  Forbes  be  au 
thorized  to  purchase  forthwith  provisions  for  4000 
for  thirty  days,  more  or  less,  and  that  arrangements 
be  made  to  forward  them  promptly. 

HUGH  W.  GREENE, 
JOHN  I.  BAKER, 
OAKES  AMES, 
Committee  on  Militia. 
Let  it  be  done.  J.  A.  ANDREW. 

The  notes  continue  :  — 

"I  find  among  my  files  a  curious  illustration  of 
the  enthusiasm  with  which  the  first  troops  going 
South  were  regarded  by  their  fellow-citizens,  and 
the  almost  motherly  thought  taken  by  the  author 
ities  for  their  comfort.  Here  is  an  extract  from  a 
letter  dated  April  27th,  1861,  addressed  to  the  ad 
jutant-general  by  a  committee  on  behalf  of  the 
*  Occupants  of  Quincy  Market/  who  had  learned 


214  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

that  a  private  firm  had  offered  to  furnish  a  shipload 
of  ice  for  the  troops,  and  proposed  <to  furnish  a 
quantity  of  fresh  meats  to  be  packed  in  said  ice, 
for  the  benefit  of  said  troops.'  This  must  have 
been  referred  to  me  by  the  governor,  for  I  find  that 
on  the  2d  of  May,  in  advising  him  of  my  having 
got  the  refusal  (at  $1000  for  a  month)  of  a  vessel 
to  take  about  300  tons  of  ice  to  Fort  Monroe  and 
Washington,  I  let  him  know  that  I  could  pack  the 
provisions  on  it  and  would  so  arrange  it,  if  he  said 
'  Go  ahead  ; '  and  that  he  said  this  accordingly  on 
the  flyleaf  of  my  letter,  only  suggesting  that  the 
market  men  should  ( give  part  in  vegetables  instead 
of  meat.'  His  next  note  to  me  is  so  characteristic 
that  I  cannot  refrain  from  giving  it  entire :  — 


"COMMONWEALTH   OF  MASSACHUSETTS. 

"  Executive  Department.     Council  Chamber. 
"  BOSTON,  May  20,  1861. 

"  MY  DEAR  SIR,  —  I  wish  you  would  have  some 
of  Baker's  chocolate  sent  on  the  Pembroke  for  our 
troops  at  Fort  Monroe.    Some  ask  for  it,  and  would 
regard  this  change  as  a  luxury  and  an  advantage. 
"  Yours  faithfully,  J.  A.  ANDREW. 

"  And  a  few  dried  apples. 

"  It  need  scarcely  be  observed  that  in  all  such 
matters  we  very  soon  came  down  to  hardpan. 

"My  duties  as  quartermaster  soon  became  un 
necessary,  as  the  governor  succeeded  in  getting  the 
services  of  Colonel  E.  D.  Brigham  for  this  sort  of 


THE  BEGINNING  OF  WAR  215 

work,  but  I  found  abundant  occupation  in  buying 
ships  and  doing  what  I  could  in  the  way  of  help 
ing  to  give  the  proper  direction  to  public  opinion. 
About  this  time  I  suggested  the  expediency  of  buy 
ing  a  couple  of  steamers  for  transporting  our  troops, 
and  (the  legislature  not  being  in  session  and  no 
money  appropriated  for  such  naval  operations)  we 
raised  a  subscription  among  the  Boston  merchants 
for  half  the  needful  amount  and  the  banks  ad 
vanced  the  other  half  to  the  governor ;  and  so  in 
partnership  with  the  State  we  bought  the  steamers 
Cambridge  and  Pembroke,  borrowed  guns  from  the 
navy  yard,  and  fitted  them  up  as  transports.  The 
railroads  were  at  this  time  broken  up  between  Phila 
delphia  and  Washington,  hardly  a  mail  going,  and 
telegraphing  very  uncertain ;  and  for  a  while  the 
merchants  of  Boston  and  New  York  cooperated 
with  the  commanders  of  the  navy  yards  in  both 
places,  and  did  a  good  deal  towards  pushing  the 
outfit  of  vessels  from  the  navy  yards.  I  think  I 
may  have  had  some  sort  of  authority  at  this  time 
from  headquarters,  but  am  sure  I  met  ready  help 
from  Commodore  Hudson,  who  was  then  at  the 
head  of  the  Charlestown  Navy  Yard,  and  some 
times  stretched  the  red  tape  rather  largely." 

As  an  illustration  of  an  emergency  of  those  days 
which  had  to  be  dealt  with  on  the  spur  of  the 
moment,  I  give  my  father's  instructions  to  the  cap 
tain  of  the  Cambridge  while  she  was  still  in  the 
service  of  the  State  of  Massachusetts  :  — 


216  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

BOSTON,  July  13, 1861. 
CAPTAIN  MATTHEWS,  Steamer  Cambridge,  Hyannis : 

Dear  Sir,  —  Commodore  Hudson  sends  Lieu 
tenant  Stevens  by  this  train  to  represent  the  gov 
ernment  on  board  Cambridge,  and  take  charge  of 
any  warlike  operations,  but  he  will  doubtless  con 
sult  with  you  about  the  cruise  generally. 

You  will  receive  a  new  twelve-pound  rifle  by  the 
train,  with  ammunition  ;  also  some  preserved  meats. 

Then  get,  if  you  can  and  think  best,  ten  to  twenty 
good  men  for  the  cruise. 

Follow  Lieutenant  Stevens's  orders,  if  he  comes. 
If  he  misses  from  any  cause,  get  somehow,  by  pur 
chase  or  otherwise,  enough  coal  for  a  cruise  of  five 
or  six  days  with  what  you  have  got,  and  run  out 
about  northeast  and  cruise  on  the  north  edge  of  the 
Gulf  in  search  of  privateers  —  take  the  responsi 
bility  carefully,  of  hailing  vessels,  and  if  you  find 
one  that  you  feel  sure  is  a  privateer  or  pirate,  take 
her,  or  better  still  sink  her,  but  be  sure  you  are 
right  before  you  fire. 

I  have  little  doubt  the  lieutenant  will  reach  you. 
I  have  a  telegram  from  Secretary  Welles  authoriz 
ing  me  to  send  you  on  a  two  or  three  days'  cruise 
after  the  privateer.  The  best  chance  for  catching 
her  will  be  at  the  northeast,  on  the  track  of  vessels 
bound  to  New  York  from  Europe.  She  was  last 
seen  Monday  night,  about  one  hundred  miles  south 
east  from  Nantucket ;  has  had  light  southerly  winds 
since.  She  is  a  full-rigged  brig,  of  about  200 
tons,  formerly  the  Echo,  slaver,  has  been  showing 


THE  BEGINNING  OF  WAR  217 

French  flag,  has  cotton  foresail  and  top-gallant 
sails,  hemp  trysail.  Has  three  jibs  and  staysail, 
about  seventy  men,  Captain  Coxetter,  First  Lieuten 
ant  Postell,  said  to  be  formerly  of  Texan  navy,  one 
eighteen-pound  pivot  gun,  four  thirty-two  or  twenty- 
four,  and  all  old  guns,  no  rifled  cannon. 

There  have  been  two  revenue  cutters  sent  from 
here  and  United  States  sloop  Vincennes,  also  sev 
eral  vessels  from  New  York,  all  intending  to  cruise 
to  eastward  of  Nantucket.  Your  best  chance  will 
therefore  be  further  north.  The  Secretary's  direc 
tions  are  to  cruise  for  two  or  three  days,  but  if  you 
get  any  information  which  leads  you  to  hope  for 
success,  you  must  cruise  longer. 

We  shall  have  troops  to  send  by  you  about 
Thursday.  Return  to  Boston  after  your  cruise.  I 
have  telegraphed  Captain  John  Eldridge  to  engage 
coal  and  men  for  you  at  Hyannis  conditionally. 
See  newspapers  for  particulars  about  pirates. 

Yours,  J.  M.  FORBES. 

As  an  illustration  of  the  great  dislike  my  father 
felt  for  those  who  affected  cheap  newspaper  noto 
riety,  I  give  his  directions,  written  while  he  was  prac 
tically  in  charge  of  Massachusetts  naval  affairs,  to 
W.  P.  Lee,  apparently  commanding  the  Massachu 
setts  steamship  Pembroke  :  — 

July  13,  1861. 

In  a  quiet  way  the  Pembroke  should  hail  vessels, 
and  warn  them,  and  get  information  as  to  the  Jeff 
Davis.  See  description  of  her  in  my  letter  book. 


218  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

If  you  meet  with  a  pirate,  you  have  a  right  to 
take  her,  provided  you  are  sure,  but  let  us  have 

no  swaggering  a  la  G .  If  anybody  on  board 

writes  bragging  letters  that  get  into  the  papers,  I 
will  use  my  influence  to  get  him  on  the  outside  of 
her.  If  she  can  really  do  something,  she  will  get 
talked  of  enough,  but  talk  alone  is  of  no  good. 

No  harm  in  a  little  deviation  from  the  straight 
track.  Remember  there  are  many  cruisers  out  after 
pirates  besides  yourselves.  Try  to  telegraph  us 
from  Fort  Monroe,  when  we  may  expect  you,  and 
look  out  for  telegraph  hence  via  Baltimore. 

Don't  waste  your  new  shells — twenty -four  pounds. 
Truly  yours,  J.  M.  FORBES. 

To  return  to  my  father's  memories  of  this  early 
part  of  the  war  :  — 

"  I  however  only  acted  as  secretary  of  the  navy 
for  Massachusetts  for  a  very  short  time,  as  it  was 
entirely  irregular  for  the  State  to  own  transports, 
and  indeed  only  thought  of  for  a  temporary  expe 
dient.  So  we  soon  sold  the  Cambridge  to  the 
United  States,  and,  the  Pembroke  being  too  small, 
sold  her  to  R.  B.  Forbes  and  others  for  China;  and 
she  carried,  under  John  A.  Cunningham,  the  only 
letter  of  marque  issued  during  the  rebellion. 

"  My  letter  books  and  telegrams  show  many 
alarms  about  rebel  privateers  on  the  coast,  and 
others  fitting  out  in  Canada.  I  had  to  take  a  lead 
in  overhauling  the  well  or  ill  founded  reports,  and 
sometimes  to  try  and  intercept  the  vessels,  but  I 


THE  BEGINNING  OF  WAR  219 

find  nothing  really  worth  recording.  Once,  in  my 
absence.  Jack  Hale 1  was  roused  up  in  the  night  by 
a  telegraphic  message  from  Mr.  Seward  to  me  sug 
gesting  getting  the  navy  yard  to  send  a  cruiser  to 
the  St.  Lawrence  to  try  and  intercept  a  rebel  pirate 
thought  to  be  fitting  out  at  Montreal ;  but  there 
were  only  slow  old  sailing  ships  available,  and  I 
knew  too  much  of  the  thirty-mile-wide  Gulf  of  St. 
Lawrence  to  send  such  vessels  on  a  wild  goose 
chase ;  and  so  confined  myself  to  investigating  the 
facts  through  our  consuls.  In  this  case  I  believe  it 
all  grew  out  of  the  desire  of  some  Canadian  steam 
ship  owner  to  frighten  us  into  buying  his  vessel  in 
Canada." 

I  give  a  few  of  my  father's  letters  of  this  period 
mainly  as  showing  his  reasons  for  urging  the  im 
portance  of  a  volunteer  navy,  and  partly  as  indicat 
ing  the  other  subjects  of  public  interest  which  were 
engaging  his  attention  :  — 

J0  M.  FOKBES  TO  THE  "  NEW  YORK  EVENING  POST." 

A  short  sentence  in  the  telegraph  is  suggestive 
about  Cuba :  No  more  American  ships  can  get 
charters. 

This  does  not  apply  to  Cuba  alone.  The  loss  by 
these  miserable  pirates,  in  freight  and  in  insurance 
premiums,  is  already  ten  times  what  it  would  cost 
to  have  prevented  them  by  a  little  forecast  on  the 
part  of  government. 

Next  will  come  a  complication  with  foreign  powers 

1  E.  J.  Hale,  his  partner. 


220  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

about  efficiency  of  blockade,  then  encouragement  of 
rebels,  and  loss  of  lives  and  treasure  indefinite. 

If  the  government  will  not  act,  or  Congress,  they 
must  be  pushed  on  by  the  press.  Fifty  sail  of  ves 
sels  should  be  got  to  sea  before  the  1st  of  August. 
Blockading,  they  will  be  valuable,  and  as  cruisers ; 
but  still  more  for  showing  the  rebels,  and  their 
friends  in  Europe,  that  we  intend  to  seal  them  up. 

Governments  are  always  timid  about  new  mea 
sures  without  precedents.  Let  the  press  and  the 
people  speak,  and  government  must  follow ;  but  no 
time  is  to  be  lost.  Congress  must  authorize  the 
needful  action. 

It  is  a  poor  measure,  a  half  measure,  to  turn  this 
over  to  the  Treasury  with  their  miserable  revenue 
cutters.  It  belongs  to  the  navy,  and  should  be 
placed  there. 

J.   M.   FORBES  TO   W.   H.   SEWARD. 

BOSTON,  June  12, 1861. 

I  have  just  seen  Lothrop  Motley  (Dutch  Repub 
lic),  who  has  landed  from  the  steamer  this  morn 
ing,  and  gives  very  brilliant  accounts  of  our  Eng 
lish  relations. 

This  is  all  very  well  while  we  are  strong,  and 
there  is  a  prospect  of  our  whipping  the  rebels  before 
the  next  cotton  crop;  but  I  have  seen  letters  from 
well-informed  sources,  not  diplomatic,  which  have 
another  color. 

The  aristocratic  rulers  of  England  do  not  like  us, 
and  the  middle  classes  want  cotton,  and  our  safety 


THE  BEGINNING  OF  WAR  221 

lies,  while  talking  smoothly  of  peace,  and  believing 
all  we  choose  of  their  fair  professions,  in  taking  the 
most  vigorous  measures  to  strengthen  our  navy. 
.  .  .  We  can  get  some  weapons  forged  for  those 
domestic  enemies  which  will  be  useful  for  foreign 
ones,  in  case  they  get  hungry  for  cotton,  and  try  to 
bully  us  next  fall.  I  hope  you  will  not  relax  one 
iota  for  all  the  peace  talk.  France  will  act  with 
England  if  we  are  caught  weak  next  fall. 

J.   M.   FOEBES  TO  T.   DAWES  ELIOT.1 

BOSTON,  July  4, 1861. 

MY  DEAR  MR.  ELIOT,  —  I  have  yours  of  2d,  and 
note  the  doubts  of  Mr.  Welles  as  to  the  safety  of 
intrusting  commissions  to  our  merchant  sailors. 
This  is  natural  at  first  sight,  but  a  little  reflection 
must  convince  him  that  it  is  entirely  unfounded. 

During  our  two  wars  with  England,  when  most 
of  our  merchant  ships  were  of  200  to  400  tons  and 
none  above  700,  our  best  commodores  and  captains 
came  from  the  merchant  service,  and  showed  no  in 
aptitude  for  carrying  frigates  into  action.  Look 
over  Cooper's  "  Naval  History  "  and  see  who  won 
the  laurels  then ! 

If  history  were  wanting  as  a  guide,  we  should  on 
general  principles  come  to  the  same  confidence  in 
the  skill  and  gallantry  of  our  merchant  sailors.  I 
would  make  no  invidious  comparisons  with  our 
navy ;  but  the  crisis  is  a  great  one,  and  the  navy 

1  Chairman  of  the  Naval  Committee  of  the  House  of  Representa 
tives.  —  ED. 


222  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

can  well  afford  to  face  the  truth.  It  has  glorious 
men  and  glorious  memories,  but  they  are  so  closely 
interwoven  with  those  of  our  merchant  marine  that 
to  lower  the  one  it  is  almost  inevitable  that  you 
lower  the  other.  If  I  make  a  comparison,  it  is 
partly  in  the  hope  of  making  suggestions  that  will 
tend  to  raise  the  navy  to  its  highest  point  of  effi 
ciency. 

Let  us  for  a  moment  examine  the  training  of 
the  two  services  now.  Leaving  out  the  Annapolis 
school  as  only  just  beginning  to  act  upon  the  very 
youngest  grade  of  commissioned  officers,  the  youths 
intended  for  the  navy  have  been  selected  at  a  very 
early  age,  with  generally  very  insufficient  educa 
tion,  from  those  families  who  have  political  in 
fluence,  and  from  those  young  men  who  have  a 
prejudice  against  rough  sailor  life.  Under  our 
system  of  promotion  by  seniority  these  young  men 
live  an  easy  life  in  the  midshipman's  mess,  the  ward 
room,  or  on  shore,  with  little  responsibility  and  lit 
tle  actual  work  until,  at  the  age  of  from  forty  to 
sixty,  they  get  command  of  a  vessel ;  they  feel  that 
they  are  in  the  public  service  for  life,  and  that  the 
ones  that  take  the  best  care  of  their  lives  and 
healths  are  the  most  sure  of  the  high  honors  of 
their  profession !  Considering  their  want  of  early 
training,  of  active  experience,  and  of  stimulus,  it  is 
only  surprising  that  they  are  on  the  whole  so  fine  a 
body  of  men. 

Compare  this  training  with  that  of  our  merchant 
officers.  Taken  from  a  class  of  young  men,  with 


THE  BEGINNING  OF  WAR  223 

somewhat  fewer  advantages  and  education,  but  all 
having  access  to  our  public  schools,  they  are  sent 
to  sea  to  fight  their  own  way  up.  Those  who  are 
capable  soon  emerge  from  the  mass  of  common 
sailors  (most  of  them  common  sailors  for  life),  and 
are  tried  as  mates,  etc.  They  are  chosen  for  their 
daring,  their  vigilance,  their  faculty  for  command 
ing  ;  and  those  who  prove  to  have  these  qualities 
soon  get  into  command.  In  nine  cases  out  of  ten, 
the  young  American-born  sailor  who  is  fit  for  it 
gets  command  of  a  vessel  by  the  time  he  is  twenty- 
five  years  old,  an  age  when  our  naval  officers  have, 
as  a  rule,  had  but  little  experience  in  navigating 
vessels,  and  but  little  responsibility  put  upon  them. 

Instead  of  the  little  vessels  which  our  heroes  of 
the  old  wars  commanded,  you  will  find  these  same 
merchant  captains  in  command  of  vessels  ranging 
from  700  tons  (a  small  ship  now),  up  to  1500  and 
2000  tons,  some  as  large  as  our  seventy-fours,  many 
as  large  as  our  first-class  frigates !  It  is  idle  to  talk 
of  such  men  not  being  able  to  manoeuvre  sloops-of- 
war  or  frigates,  either  in  action  or  in  any  circum 
stances  where  seamanship  and  daring  are  needed. 

So  much  for  a  comparison  of  the  training  of  the 
two  services ;  now  for  one  or  two  suggestions  for 
raising  the  navy.  First,  let  us  go  on  with  the 
naval  school  and  carry  its  scientific  requirements 
and  rigid  discipline  as  high  as  West  Point.  To  go 
further  back  still ;  I  would  have  the  candidates  for 
the  school  recommended,  not  by  members  of  Con 
gress,  but  by  the  boards  of  education  of  the  dif- 


224  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

ferent  States,  and  taken  from  those  who  have 
proved  themselves  the  best  scholars  in  our  public 
schools,  —  at  least  a  majority  of  them ;  leaving  the 
minority  to  come  from  those  more  favored  by  for 
tune  who  use  the  private  schools. 

Once  in  service,  I  would  have  our  navy  actively 
employed  in  surveying  foreign  seas  and  making 
charts,  as  the  English  navy  is  doing  to  a  consider 
able  extent.  Then  let  the  President  have  some 
discretion  to  promote  those  who  by  gallantry  or  sci 
ence  distinguish  themselves.  Finally,  a  more  liberal 
retiring  list,  and  if  possible  some  higher  honors  in 
the  way  of  titles  as  a  stimulus  to  our  officers. 

Perhaps  there  is  not  time  for  the  reform  of  the 
service,  but  it  is  the  time  for  beginning  the  organ 
ization  of  our  volunteer  navy.  Do  you  note  that 
the  only  privateer  that  we  know  has  been  taken 
has  been  by  sailing  brig  Perry,  though  another  is 
reported  by  the  Niagara  ?  I  could  say  almost  or 
quite  as  much  in  favor  of  half  clipper  ships,  in 
comparison  with  the  ordinary  sloop-of-war,  as  I 
have  said  of  our  merchant  sailors.  Until  we  be 
come  converted  to  European  ideas  upon  standing 
armies  and  navies,  we  cannot  think  of  giving  up 
our  land  or  sea  militia,  and,  if  we  give  up  privateer 
ing,  we  must  have  a  substitute  with  all  its  strength 
and  more.  Yours  truly, 

J.  M.  FORBES. 


THE  BEGINNING  OF  WAR  225 

J.   M.   POKBES   TO  MOSES  H.   GRIN^ELL. 

BOSTON,  July  6, 1861. 

Thank  you  for  your  telegram.  I  wrote  you  last 
Sunday  in  substance  as  follows :  — 

We  arc  obliterating  party  lines,  which  is  all  the 
fashion,  especially  with  the  Outs.  Why  not  do  so 
with  state  lines?  Of  all  the  men  who  should  go 
abroad,  Lothrop  Motley  would  do  most  credit  to  the 
administration.  He  was  shut  off  by  Adams  and 
Burlingame,  much  to  our  regret,  and  to  the  loss  of 
the  country.  He  is  a  Republican  from  the  start, 
a  linguist,  and  the  historian  of  the  day.  Now  that 
Burlingame  has  been  banished  to  China,  why  not 
send  Motley  to  Vienna  ?  It  would  be  a  delicate 
matter  for  Massachusetts  to  press,  as  she  has  two 
foreign  missions,  but  if  the  suggestion  came  from 
you,  upon  considerations  of  public  interest,  I  should 
think  Mr.  Seward  would  not  hesitate  to  appoint 
him.  We  have  not,  outside  of  London  and  Sar 
dinia,  a  very  strong  representation  in  Europe,  and  it 
does  strike  me  this  would  strengthen  the  adminis 
tration. 

If  you  agree  with  me,  and  will  push  it,  you  can 
do  it,  and  I  know  it  will  be  applauded,  as  Mr. 
Irving' s  appointment,  you  remember,  was  univer 
sally.  It  would  be  a  compliment  to  literature  rather 
than  to  our  State.  .  .  . 

I  hope  to  see  Congress  organize  a  mercantile 
navy,  and  put  you  at  the  head  of  a  commission  to 
sit  in  New  York,  and  see  to  it.  Buy  clipper  ships, 
and  commission  the  captains  with  good  rank  for  the 
war! 


226  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

The  finding  of  an  efficient  "  aide  "  for  the  over 
taxed  war-governor  of  Massachusetts  was  a  matter 
of  importance,  and  this  he  enforced  on  General 
Scott's  mind  by  the  gift  of  a  salmon ;  a  cod  sent,  as 
I  guess,  with  some  similar  errand,  not  having  ar 
rived  in  condition  to  emphasize  it.  Besides  any 
ulterior  object,  he  had  an  amused  sympathy  with 
the  kind  old  general's  affection  for  a  good  din 
ner  :  — 

J.   M.   FORBES  TO  LIEUTENANT-GENERAL  WTNFIELD 
SCOTT. 

BOSTON,  July  3, 1861. 

MY  DEAR  SIR,  —  Your  valued  note  of  July  1st 
is  received.  It  is  clear  that  Neptune  owes  me  a 
grudge  in  thus  making  me  the  innocent  reason  of 
the  first  failure  you  ever  experienced  in  entertain 
ing  your  friends  or  enemies  ! 

I  do  not,  however,  mean  to  put  up  with  defeat, 
and  so  try  my  own  ground,  the  railroad,  and  send 
a  salmon  alone,  as  I  find  there  is  some  reason  to 
fear  that  his  highness,  the  cod,  does  not  bear  trans 
portation,  and  may  hurt  the  salmon.  Possibly,  too, 
his  Excellency  Governor  Andrew's  fish  may  have 
had  the  preference  in  the  ice-chest ! 

I  hear  that  our  good  governor  has  turned  his 
face  toward  "Washington.  He  is  killing  himself 
with  attention  to  military  details,  and  if  you  value 
him  or  Massachusetts,  I  wish  you  could  send  him 
some  good  army  officer  to  help  him  organize  our 
last  ten  thousand  men. 


THE  BEGINNING  OF  WAR  227 

This  learning  the  art  of  war  in  two  months  is  a 
serious  matter  ! 

With  my  best  wishes  and  respects. 

Yours  truly,  J.  M.  FORBES. 

My  father's  only  reference  to  the  first  great  bat 
tle  of  the  war  is  in  some  reminiscences  of  Wendell 
Phillips,  and  reads  as  follows  :  — 

"  On  the  Sunday  of  the  first  Bull  Run  I  heard 
W.  H.  Channing 1  preach,  and  made  up  off-hand  a 
little  party  for  the  next  day,  Monday,  at  Milton, 
including  James  Freeman  Clarke,  W.  H.  Channing, 
and  Mr.  Phillips.  Governor  Andrew  was  ill  at  Hing- 
ham,  so  that  I  could  not  get  him ;  and  I  forget 
who  the  others  were.  When  they  came  out  they 
brought  out  the  worst  story  of  Bull  Run,  looking 
almost  like  the  capture  of  Washington.  It  was  a 
sad  feast ;  Channing  almost  cried,  and  all  were  in 
the  depths  except  Phillips,  who  stoutly  insisted  that 
it  was  just  what  we  wanted,  and  was  perhaps  the 
best  thing  that  could  have  happened ;  and  he  was 
probably  right." 

The  notes  continue  :  — 

"  I  find  that  on  the  9th  of  July  I  sent  Mr.  Eliot 
my  rough  draft  of  the  (  Bill  for  a  Volunteer  Navy/ 
which  was  afterwards  carefully  drawn  up  by  Mr. 
R.  H.  Dana.  The  bill  empowered  the  government 
to  purchase  and  arm  vessels  and  give  commissions  to 
merchant  captains  and  others  on  them,  to  appoint 
three  commissioners  of  the  volunteer  navy  to  organ- 

1  Then  lately  arrived  from  England. 


228  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

ize  a  bureau  at  Washington  to  take  charge  of  the 
new  business ;  and  it  gave  a  $3,000,000  appropria 
tion  to  carry  out  its  provisions.  The  bill  was  passed 
later  on,  but  meanwhile  I  had  been  put  on  a  com 
mission,  with  Commodore  Hudson,  of  the  navy 
yard  at  Charlestown,  and  J.  C.  Delano,  of  New 
Bedford,  to  buy  merchant  ships  for  the  navy,  fit 
them  for  sea  ready  for  their  armament,  and  also  to 
nominate  from  the  merchant  service  captains,  and 
perhaps  other  officers,  to  command  them.  We 
bought  several  ships,  among  which  I  remember  the 
Fear  not,  Captain  Faucon." 

During  his  work  in  ship-buying  my  father's  dis 
gust  was  extreme  to  find  that  a  Boston  firm  had  got 
wind,  through  some  leaky  official  in  the  Navy  De 
partment,  of  his  intended  purchases.  He  writes  of 
this  firm  to  Assistant  Secretary  Fox  as  follows  :  — 

"  I  think  they  will  cost  the  department  some 
thousands  besides  the  delay.  One  vessel  that  has 
been,  I  hear,  offered  at  $25,000  is  held  firmly  at 
$30,000  and  ought  to  have  been  bought  at  $20,000 
to  $24,000.  Others  are  stimulated  by  these  people 
to  offer  at  high  prices,  having  first  been  led  to  pro 
mise  and a  commission  if  they  sell  to  gov 
ernment.  Of  course,  government  has  thus  to  pay 
not  for  help,  but  for  hindrance.  .  .  .  Better  far,  if 
Messrs. and have  any  claim  on  the  depart 
ment,  authorize  us  to  pay  them  a  commission  to  help 
us,  conditional  on  their  doing  so,  than  let  them 
exact  a  commission,  practically  from  us,  for  hurting 
our  negotiations." 


THE  BEGINNING  OF  WAR  229 

And  he  says  in  another  letter  to  Fox  of  this 
period :  — 

"  We  are  still  embarrassed  by  the  sharks,  who 
have  forestalled  us  with  the  vessels  we  think  we 
must  have ;  and  by  a  singular  coincidence,  your 
naval  constructor  H.  can  see  very  little  good  in  any 
vessel  except  those  thus  forestalled.  The  others 
are  too  large  or  too  small,  or  too  deep  or  too  shoal, 
and  our  good  friend  Commodore  Hudson  is  very 
shy  of  going  against  the  established  navy  dimen 
sions.  So  in  my  animosity  against  the  speculators 
I  make  scant  headway,  as  I  will  not  see  the  govern 
ment  fleeced  until  the  emergency  becomes  greater." 

My  father  recalls  in  his  notes  still  another  form 
of  stealing  which  he  unearthed  in  the  five  weeks 
during  which  he  served  on  the  commission  :  — 

"  Feeling  the  urgency  for  haste,  I  had  the  King 
Fish 1  thoroughly  fitted  out  by  Mr.  David  A.  Green, 
an  experienced  merchant  and  shipowner,  with  all 
the  substantiate  of  rigging  and  spars  needed  for 
two  or  three  years,  and  had  her  towed  round  to 
the  Charlestown  Navy  Yard  to  receive  her  arma 
ment  and  crew,  the  receiving  ship  being  full  of 
sailors  waiting  for  vessels.  To  my  disgust,  some 
weeks  later  I  found  her  still  at  the  navy  yard,  and 
upon  inquiry  I  found  that  nearly  all  the  New  Bed 
ford  outfitting  had  been  ignored,  and  new  spars, 
rigging,  and  other  outfit  put  in.  I  satisfied  myself 
that  somebody  around  the  navy  yard  got  a  commis 
sion  or  steal  for  all  this,  and  though  it  could  not 

1  A  new  clipper  just  bought  by  the  commission.  —  ED. 


230  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

be  proved  without  a  court-martial  and  perhaps  civil 
trial,  I  reported  the  facts  to  Mr.  Fox,  assistant 
secretary  of  the  navy,  and  these,  with  other  similar 
occurrences,  called  his  attention  to  the  urgent  need 
of  reform. 

"  He  quietly  got  Congress  to  pass  a  bill  provid 
ing  that  thereafter  contractors  and  others  furnish 
ing  supplies  for  the  navy  should  become  employees 
of  the  department,  and  subject  to  court-martial ; 
and  under  this  new  regime  he  remedied  many  of 
the  abuses  which  had  grown  up,  and  came  near 
getting  some  very  sanctimonious  thieves  put  into 
the  penitentiary. 

"  What  was  done  in  New  England  in  the  way  of 
buying  ships  was  on  rather  a  small  scale,  as  very 
much  the  larger  number  were  bought  in  New  York 
and  the  other  Middle  States,  through  the  agency  of 
a  relative  of  Mr.  Welles,  an  honest  and  fairly  good 
business  man,  who  on  the  whole  did  his  work  very 
well,  although  he  made  the  mistake  of  receiving 
a  percentage  from  the  shipowners.  Neither  he  nor 
the  Secretary  could  see  that  the  commission  paid 
him  by  the  sellers  was  really  to  come  out  of  the 
government  instead  of  out  of  the  sellers ;  so  he 
made,  it  was  thought,  about  $100,000,  at  the  cost 
of  some  scandal  against  Welles  and  against  the  ad 
ministration  ;  but  it  was  done  openly  and  public 
opinion  was  not  enough  instructed  to  appreciate 
fully  the  mischief,  which  was  really  much  greater 
than  for  the  government  to  have  paid  him  a  large 
commission. 


THE  BEGINNING  OF  WAR  231 

"  We  of  the  Massachusetts  commission  had,  of 
course,  asked  no  charges,  except  for  our  actual  trav 
eling  expenses,  and  I  incline  to  think  that  even 
these  were  borne  by  us.  In  railroad  matters,  it  had 
always  been  an  axiom  that  a  commission  paid  by  a 
seller  to  an  employee  of  the  company  was  the  worst 
form  of  stealing,  for  the  seller  not  only  added  the 
commission  to  his  price,  but  it,  being  a  secret  ar 
rangement,  was  liable  always  to  cover  bad  quality 
and  bad  measure.  The  same  holds  good  of  govern 
ment  transactions.  Gideon  Welles  was  an  honest 
old  Democratic  editor,  who  knew  but  little  of  busi 
ness,  and  who  could  not  see  the  point  that  whatever 
the  seller  of  the  ship  paid  the  agent  of  the  govern 
ment  for  buying  his  ship  was  not  only  an  addition 
to  the  price,  but  was  a  bribe  to  the  agent  to  shut 
his  eyes  as  to  the  quality  of  the  thing  purchased." 

I  add  a  letter  from  Mr.  Fox,  from  which  it  would 
appear  that  his  correspondent  was  required  to  be 
responsible  for  officers  as  well  as  ships  :  — 

G.    V.    FOX   TO   J.  M.    FORBES. 

NAVY  DEPARTMENT,  July  30, 1861. 

SIR,  —  I  notice  your  letter  to  the  Secretary  of 
July  27.  I  think  the  Rover  better  be  fitted  for  a 
long  cruise  towards  the  line,  where  her  steam  might 
enable  her  to  pick  up  a  privateer  in  calm  latitudes. 
You  must  send  forward  nominations  for  all  the 
officers,  or  there  will  be  delay.  .  .  .  Let  us  have  the 
officers  at  once.  The  department  will  buy  no  ships 
east  of  New  York,  except  through  your  board,  and 


232  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

any  other  parties  have  no  countenance  from  here. 
If  the  board  jump  clear  of  them,  their  act  will  be 
approved.  We  mean  to  have  you  act  unfettered, 
to  the  best  of  your  judgment,  but  I  should  try  to 
keep  inside  of  1100  tons.  .  .  . 

Very  truly  yours,  G.  V.  Fox. 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE    CONDUCT    OF   THE    WAB 

THE  commission  for  buying  ships  was  dissolved 
on  August  30,  1861,  and  just  before  that  date  my 
father  writes  to  C.  F.  Adams,  United  States  min 
ister  to  London,  stating  his  objection  to  Seward's 
proposition  to  give  up  privateering.  He  held  that 
we  must  keep  the  right  to  privateer  as  a  threat,  not 
to  be  used  except  in  extremity :  — 

J.  M.  FOKBES  TO  CHARLES  FRANCIS  ADAMS. 

BOSTON,  August  12,  1861. 

MY  DEAR  SIR,  —  I  have  been  hard  at  work  for 
some  weeks  upon  the  organization  of  the  new  vol 
unteer  navy,  and  although  it  will  be  made  an  aux 
iliary,  and  a  very  useful  one,  to  the  navy,  I  regret  to 
say  I  find  great  difficulties  in  giving  it  that  effi 
ciency  which  it  ought  to  have,  as  a  substitute  for 
privateering.  I  am  of  course  not  going  to  give  it 
up,  and  am  looking  to  such  changes  in  our  law  as 
will  doubtless  be  adopted  whenever  an  emergency 
really  puts  us  to  our  trumps ;  but  while  it  is  yet 
an  experiment,  I  am  satisfied  that  we  ought  not  to 
give  up  our  right  to  issue  letters  of  marque  unless 
accompanied  by  Mr.  Marcy's  broader  principle  of 


234:  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

exempting   all   private   property  on  the  sea   from 
capture. 

Even  then  I  consider  the  time  an  unlucky  one, 
and  hope  that  some  happy  accident  or  some  un 
reasonable  demands  on  the  part  of  the  European 
powers  may  enable  us  to  postpone  the  whole  ques 
tion.  I  need  not,  I  hope,  assure  you  that  I  have 
no  disposition  to  interfere  with  your  duties  beyond 
giving  you  at  the  earliest  moment  the  result  of  my 
personal  observation  upon  the  experiments  we  are 
trying  now,  and  which  of  course  has  a  direct  bear 
ing  upon  the  questions  which  you  are  perhaps  now 
discussing. 

Pray  make  my  best  regards  to  Mrs.  Adams  and 
the  rest  of  your  family,  and  believe  me, 
Truly  yours  with  high  respect, 

J.  M.  FORBES. 

N.  B.  —  Our  hope  was  (and  still  is)  to  make  the 
volunteer  navy  equally  strong  for  attack  —  without 
the  barbarism  of  privateering,  but  it  is  by  no  means 
so  easy  a  task  as  we  had  supposed. 

Mr.  Adams  answered  my  father's  letter  of  August 
12,  as  follows  :  — 

CHARLES   FRANCIS   ADAMS  TO  J.  M.   FORBES. 

LONDON,  30  August,  1861. 

I  do  not  know  that  I  violate  any  confidence  by 
telling  you  that  the  hope  expressed  in  yours  to  me 
has  been  thus  far  verified.  What  the  future  may 
bring  forth,  no  man  can  tell,  —  but  the  fact  is  cer 
tain  that,  now,  negotiation  is  at  a  standstill. 


THE   CONDUCT  OF  THE  WAR  235 

I  hear  excellent  accounts  of  your  patriotic  labors 
in  the  cause,  and  hope  the  best  results  from  them. 
The  great  point  now  is  the  blockade.  Privateering 
will  come  to  nothing  if  that  be  made  effective.  If 
not,  I  see  no  end  to  it.  For  some  of  our  own  peo 
ple  would  be  as  likely  to  go  into  it  as  to  carry  on 
the  slave  trade.  The  English  must  abide  by  the 
blockade,  if  it  really  be  one-  They  will  set  it  aside 
if  they  can  pick  a  good  flaw  in  it. 

The  course  of  events  as  seen  from  here  is  towards 
one  termination  of  the  struggle,  and  one  only.  We 
cannot  afford  to  go  over  this  ground  more  than 
once.  The  slave  question  must  be  settled  this  time 
once  for  all.  It  is  surprising  to  see  the  efforts  made 
here  to  create  the  belief  that  our  struggle  has  no 
thing  to  do  with  slavery,  but  that  it  is  all  about  a 
tariff.  Even  the  anti-slavery  people  have  been  more 
or  less  inclined  to  give  in  to  this  notion. 

Of  course  the  measure  of  emancipation  is  a  most 
grave  one.  It  must  task  the  capacity  of  the  wisest 
heads  among  us.  But  there  is  no  alternative  in  my 
mind  between  taking  it  up  and  absolute  submission. 

I  cannot  conceal  from  myself  the  fact  that  as  a 
whole  the  English  are  pleased  with  our  misfortunes. 
There  never  was  any  real  good  will  towards  us  — 
and  the  appearance  of  it  of  late  years  was  only  the 
effect  of  their  fears  of  our  prosperity  and  our  grow 
ing  strength.  Of  course,  you  will  keep  these  views 
to  yourself.  It  is  not  advisable  in  these  days  for 
ministers  abroad  to  be  quoted.  With  best  regards 
for  Mrs.  F.  and  your  family,  I  am 

Very  truly  yours,  C.  F.  ADAMS. 


236  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

Next  in  order  comes  a  letter  from  Mr.  Bryant  to 
my  father  in  answer  to  a  sort  of  fusilade  from  him 
expressive  of  his  extreme  impatience  as  to  the  con 
duct  of  the  War  Department :  — 

WILLIAM  CULLEN  BRYANT  TO   J.   M.   FORBES. 

OFFICE  OF  THE  EVENING  POST, 
NEW  YORK,  August  21,  1861. 

MY  DEAR  SIR,  —  It  does  not  seem  to  me  at  all 
indiscreet  or  imprudent  to  make  the  change  in  the 
Cabinet  which  you  suggest.  Indeed,  I  think  that 
Mr.  Cameron's  retirement  would,  instead  of  being 
impolitic,  be  the  most  politic  thing  that  could  be 
done,  by  way  of  giving  firmness  to  public  opinion 
and  strengthening  the  administration  with  the  peo 
ple.  The  dissatisfaction  here  is  as  great  as  with 
you,  and  I  hear  that  at  Washington  it  is  expressed 
by  everybody,  except  Cameron's  special  friends  and 
favorites,  in  the  strongest  terms.  If  I  am  rightly 
informed,  there  is  nothing  done  by  him  with  the 
promptness,  energy,  and  decision  which  the  times 
demand,  without  his  being  in  a  manner  forced  to  it 
by  the  other  members  of  the  Cabinet,  or  the  Presi 
dent.  A  man  who  wants  to  make  a  contract  with 
the  government  for  three  hundred  mules,  provided 
he  be  a  Pennsylvanian,  can  obtain  access  to  him, 
when  a  citizen  of  East  Tennessee,  coming  as  the 
representative  of  the  numerous  Union  population 
of  that  region,  is  denied.  There  are  bitter  com 
plaints,  too,  of  Cameron's  disregard  of  his  appoint 
ments  and  engagements  in  such  cases  as  that  I  have 
mentioned. 


THE  CONDUCT  OF  THE  WAR  237 

Mr.  Lincoln  must  know,  I  think,  that  Cameron  is 
worse  than  nothing  in  the  Cabinet,  and  a  strong 
representation  concerning  his  unpopularity  and  un- 
acceptableness,  of  which  he  may  not  know,  may 
lead  him  to  take  the  important  resolution  of  supply 
ing  his  place  with  a  better  man.  I  do  not  think 
the  newspapers  are  the  place  to  discuss  the  matter, 
but  I  make  no  secret  of  my  opinion. 
I  am,  dear  sir,  truly  yours, 

WM.  C.  BRYANT. 

P.  S.  —  I  open  my  letter  to  say  another  word 
on  the  subject  of  yours.  It  does  not  appear  to  me 
that  H.  would  be  the  man  for  the  War  Department, 
for  the  reason  that  he  might  give  us  trouble  on  the 
slavery  question.  Cameron  has  managed  that  part 
of  our  relations  with  the  seceding  States  very  badly, 
and  I  feel  H.  would  do  no  better.  He  would  do 
very  well  in  the  place  of  Smith ;  but  with  the  excep 
tion  of  making  a  place  for  him,  it  might  not  be  of 
much  consequence  whether  Smith  were  retained  or 
not,  though  he  adds  no  strength  to  the  Cabinet. 
Some  here  talk  of  requiring  the  dismissal  of  Seward, 
but  I  fear  this  would  be  asking  more  than  it  is 
possible  to  get,  and  might  endanger  the  success  of 
the  scheme  for  getting  rid  of  Cameron. 

W.  C.  B. 

The  following  letters  show  that  my  father  was 
not  yet  prepared  to  back  the  extreme  measures  of 
his  abolition  friends :  — 


238  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

S.   G.   HOWE  TO   J.   M.   FORBES. 

BOSTON,  August  19, 1861. 

.  .  .  The  public  Deed  something,  or  somebody, 
some  word,  or  some  blow,  to  magnetize  them,  or 
else  they  will  be  fearfully  demoralized  in  a  month. 
The  word  must  be  emancipation,  and  war  upon 
slaveholders  as  such  —  as  a  distinct  class  —  as  the 
authors  of  all  the  present  ills. 

Can  you  not  confer  with  the  governor  about 
this?  You  cannot  keep  up  public  interest,  much 
less  public  enthusiasm,  about  an  abstraction  (at  least 
of  a  worldly  and  temporal  nature),  and  Union  is  a 
mere  abstraction  now ;  it  touches  not,  and  cannot 
touch,  the  public  heart. 

As  one  blow,  I  suggest  what  I  vainly  suggested 
last  spring,  an  expedition  to  land  in  or  about 
Albemarle  Sound,  composed  mainly  of  blacks,  who 
would  go  into  the  Dismal  and  other  swamps  and 
raise  the  thousands  of  refugees  there  to  go  out  and 
make  sallies  and  onslaughts  upon  the  enemy ;  and 
so  make  a  diversion. 

It  would  at  least  cause  a  worse  than  Bull  Run 
panic.  There  are  plenty  of  men  in  Canada,  reso 
lute  and  intelligent  refugees,  who  would  enlist  in 
such  an  enterprise.  It  cannot,  however,  be  done  by 
private  means.  Can  any  other  be  had,  think  you  ? 

I  have  mentioned  the  matter  of  expedition  to  the 
Dismal  Swamp  to  the  governor,  but  to  him  only. 
Please  not  speak  of  it  to  any  one  else. 


THE   CONDUCT   OF  THE  WAR  239 

J.   M.   FORBES   TO   S.    G.   HOWE. 

NAUSHON,  August  21, 1861. 

MY  DEAR  DOCTOR,  —  I  have  yours  of  the  19th. 
I  confess  to  being  one  of  that  average  class  which 
constitutes  the  majority  of  our  people,  who  as  yet 
hesitate  at  the  dreadful  experiment  of  insurrection ; 
if  it  comes  as  a  necessity,  an  alternative  to  the  sub 
version  of  republican  institutions,  we  should  not 
hesitate  a  moment.  There  seem  to  me  three  rea 
sons  against  it  at  this  time,  apart  from  our  natural 
shrinking  from  a  measure  of  this  sort  upon  humane 
grounds. 

1st.  It  may  unite  the  border  States  against  us, 
and  check  any  tendency  to  division  in  the  cotton 
States. 

2d.  It  will,  if  resorted  to  from  anything  but  ob 
vious,  stern  necessity,  divide  the  North. 

3d.  Its  success  as  a  weapon  against  the  South  is 
by  no  means  certain.  It  is,  to  my  mind,  —  with 
the  light  of  the  past  four  months'  quiet  among  the 
blacks,  and  of  John  Brown's  experience,  —  very  un 
certain  unless  resorted  to  under  favorable  circum 
stances.  At  present  it  seems  to  me  worth  more  as 
a  weapon  to  hold  in  reserve  to  threaten  with,  than 
one  to  strike  with. 

If  resorted  to  now  it  would  be  in  a  hesitating, 
uncertain  manner  by  our  administration,  and  from 
that,  if  nothing  else,  would  be  likely  to  fail.  Once 
tried,  and  failed  in,  a  great  source  of  terror  to  the 
South  and  of  confidence  to  the  North  is  lost. 

I  go  therefore  for  holding   it  in  reserve  until 


240  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

public  sentiment,  which  is  the  chief  motive  power 
behind  the  administration,  drives  them  to  use  it  deci 
sively.  Our  people  throughout  have  been  ahead  of 
our  government,  which  has  followed  rather  lag- 
gingly :  —  it  is  not  a  leading,  but  a  following  ad 
ministration.  It  does  not  act,  even  now,  readily 
when  first  urged  by  the  popular  tide.  Nothing  but 
the  full  force  of  the  current  starts  it.  If  we  could 
get  a  good  hurricane  to  help  the  tide,  it  might 
sweep  away  some  of  the  weaker  materials  in  the 
Cabinet,  and  possibly  put  a  leader  in  their  place 
who  would  thenceforward  draw  after  him  the  Cab 
inet  and  the  people. 

Your  suggestion,  then,  even  if  it  were  the  best 
thing,  seems  to  me  premature.  As  to  urging  on 
the  government  to  vigor,  to  making  serious  war 
with  shot  and  hemp,  there  would  not,  there  could 
not,  be  two  opinions  with  the  people.  Governor 
Andrew  could  give  the  hint  to  our  Massachusetts 
papers,  and  they  would  all  readily  sound  the  trum 
pet  for  vigor  and  for  discipline,  and  the  "  Evening 
Post  "  and  such  papers  would  readily  help. 

As  to  anything  more,  or  in  the  direction  you 
suggest,  I  want  to  see  the  demand  come  from  the 
people,  from  the  democracy,  rather  than  from  either 
the  leaders  or  the  abolitionists ! 

Perhaps  the  poverty  of  the  South  may  soon  begin 
to  afflict  the  slaves,  and  they  may  lead  off.  If  they 
do,  the  responsibility  is  not  ours. 

Very  truly  yours,  JOHN  M.  FORBES. 


THE  CONDUCT  OF  THE  WAR  241 

The  War  Department  continued  to  be  a  cause  of 
anxiety.  My  father  next  writes :  — 

J.   M.   FOKBES  TO   WILLIAM   CULLEN  BRYANT. 

NAUSHON,  August  24,  1861. 

Yours  of  the  21st  received.  The  objection  which 
you  suggest  to  Mr.  H.  is  a  very  strong  one.  We 
need  a  man  in  the  War  Department  who,  when  the 
right  time  comes,  will  not  hesitate  a  moment  to 
assail  the  weakest  point  of  the  enemy.  Our  Gov 
ernor  Andrew  seemed  to  me  to  hit  the  nail  on  the 
head  when  he  rebuked  Butler  for  offering  to  put 
out  any  fire  in  the  enemy's  camp.  The  time  has 
come  when  we  can  no  longer  afford  to  "  make  war 
with  rose-water/'  and  it  was  a  great  mistake  in  Con 
gress  to  limit  the  confiscation  of  property  to  that  of 
rebels  found  in  arms  against  us.  All  the  property 
of  open  rebels  should  be  forfeited  the  first  week  of 
the  next  Congress ;  this  would  enable  us  to  pro 
claim  emancipation  in  the  border  States  with  a  fixed 
compensation  for  all  valuable  slaves  belonging  to 
loyal  citizens,  without  a  very  large  bill  for  Virginia. 

I  had  hoped  that  H.  was  man  enough  to  go  in  for 
such  a  measure  and  advocate  it  as  a  boon  to  the 
loyal  citizens  of  Kentucky,  Missouri,  Maryland,  and 
Delaware,  putting  it  upon  the  ground  of  military 
necessity.  If  he  is  not  up  to  this  we  don't  want 
him ;  but  it  is  not  worth  while  to  try  to  get  rid  of 
Cameron  without  at  the  same  time  making  quite  sure 
of  a  better  man.  You  remember  the  old  story  of 
the  trapped  fox  begging  his  friend  the  hawk  not  to 


242  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

drive  off  the  half-sated  swarm  of  flies  only  to  give 
place  to  a  new  cloud  of  them  —  and  hungry  ones  ? 
I  wish  you  would  go  a  step  further,  and  suggest  a 
successor.  Is  there  no  one  who  could  take  Chase's 
place,  and  give  him  the  War?  I  forget  whether  I 
suggested  to  you  James  Joy,  of  Detroit.  He  would 
do  well  for  the  War,  better  for  the  Interior,  from 
his  thorough  knowledge  of  the  West.  Lincoln, 
Trumbull,  Chandler,  and  all  the  Western  men  know 
him.  He  is  the  most  able,  decided,  and  plucky  man 
that  I  know.  How  would  Sherman  do  for  the  Trea 
sury,  and  Chase  for  War? 

As  the  matter  stands  now,  the  effort  to  displace 
Cameron  will  be  coupled  with  one  to  put  in  H.,  and 
if  the  latter  is  not  the  right  man,  we  had  better 
rub  along  as  we  are,  until  the  right  man  turns  up. 
Governor  Andrew  has  all  the  moral  qualities ;  but  he 
is  perhaps  too  pronounced  an  anti-slavery  man,  and 
works  too  much  upon  details  himself,  not  using  other 
men.  He  would  kill  himself  in  the  Cabinet.  .  .  . 

The  answer  came  promptly,  and  is  as  follows :  — 

WILLIAM  CULLEN  BRYANT  TO  J.  M.  FORBES. 

OFFICE  OF  THE  EVENING  POST, 
NEW  YORK,  August  27,  1861. 

I  do  not  much  like  the  idea  of  putting  Sherman 
into  the  Treasury  Department.  He  would  make,  I 
think,  a  better  secretary  of  war.  The  great  objec 
tion  I  have  to  him  in  the  Treasury  Department  is 
that,  so  far  as  I  understand  the  matter,  he  is  com- 


THE  CONDUCT  OF  THE  WAR  243 

mitted,  as  the  saying  is,  to  that  foolish  Morrill  tariff. 
Yet  I  am  very  certain  that  it  would  be  considered 
by  the  country  an  immense  improvement  of  the 
Cabinet  to  place  him  in  the  War  Department.  The 
country  has  a  high  opinion  of  his  energy  and  resolu 
tion  and  practical  character. 

Of  Governor  Andrew  I  do  not  know  as  much  as 
you  do,  though  I  have  formed  a  favorable  judgment 
of  his  character  and  capacity  —  not  a  very  precise 
one,  however.  .  .  . 

They  talk  of  H.  here  as  they  do  with  you,  but  I 
am  persuaded  that  the  disqualification  I  have  men 
tioned  would  breed  trouble  in  the  end.  The  dis 
satisfaction  with  Cameron  seems  to  grow  more  and 
more  vehement  every  day.  His  presence  taints  the 
reputation  of  the  whole  Cabinet,  and  I  think  he 
should  be  ousted  at  once.  I  am  sorry  to  say  that  a 
good  deal  of  censure  is  thrown  here  upon  my  good 
friend  Welles,  of  the  Navy  Department.  He  is  too 
deliberate  for  the  temper  of  our  commercial  men, 
who  cannot  bear  to  see  the  pirates  of  the  rebel  gov 
ernment  capturing  our  merchant  ships  one  after 
another  and  defying  the  whole  United  States  navy. 
The  Sumter  and  the  Jeff  Davis  seem  to  have  a 
charmed  existence.  Yet  it  seems  to  me  that  new 
vigor  has  of  late  been  infused  into  the  Navy  Depart 
ment,  and  perhaps  we  underrated  the  difficulties  of 
rescuing  the  navy  from  the  wretched  state  in  which 
that  miserable  creature  Toucey  left  it.  There  is  a 
committee  of  our  financial  men  at  present  at  Wash 
ington,  who  have  gone  on  to  confer  with  the  Presi- 


244  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

dent,  and  it  is  possible  that  they  may  bring  back  a 
better  report  of  the  Navy  Department  than  they 
expected  to  be  able  to  make. 

Kumor  is  unfavorably  busy  with  Mr.  Seward,  but 
as  a  counterpoise  it  is  confidently  said  that  a  mutual 
aversion  has  sprung  up  between  him  and  Cameron. 
This  may  be  so.  The  "  Times/'  I  see,  does  not  spare 
Cameron,  nor  the  "  Herald."  There  is  a  good  deal 
of  talk  here  about  a  reconciliation  between  Weed 
and  Bennett,  and  a  friendly  dinner  together,  and  the 
attacks  which  the  "Herald''  is  making  upon  the  War 
and  Navy  Department,  are  said  to  be  the  result  of 
an  understanding  between  them.  Who  knows,  or 
who  cares  much  ? 

I  have  emptied  into  this  letter  substantially  all  I 
have  to  say.  There  are  doubtless  men  in  private 
life  who  would  fill  the  War  Department  as  well  as 
any  I  have  mentioned,  but  the  world  knows  not 
their  merits,  and  might  receive  their  names  with  a 
feeling  of  disappointment. 

P.  S.  —  With  regard  to  visiting  Naushon,  I  should 
certainly  like  it,  and  like  to  bring  my  wife.  I  have 
another  visit  to  make,  however,  in  another  part  of 
Massachusetts;  but  I  shall  keep  your  kind  invita 
tion  in  mind  and  will  write  you  again. 

W.  C.  B. 

Naval  matters  interested  my  father  more  than 
military,  and  I  find  him  writing  from  Naushon,  on 
August  31,  to  his  friend  Mr.  George  Ashburner, 
who  had  left  Calcutta  and  settled  in  England :  — 


THE  CONDUCT  OF  THE  WAR  245 

"I  feel  as  if  I  had  been  very  negligent  in  not 
before  thanking  you  for  your  most  thorough  and 
useful  data  about  iron  plates,  which  will  be  of  great 
help  to  the  department  when  they  come  to  decide 
upon  how  to  build.  Ked  tape,  I  fear,  is  not  con 
fined  to  the  Crimea  !  And  where  there  are  real 
difficulties  about  the  iron  plates,  and  lots  of  plain 
work  to  be  done  in  other  directions,  the  plans  mature 
slowly ! " 

He  then  goes  on  to  describe  two  iron  ships  still 
on  the  stocks  which  could  be  got  at  cost  by  the 
government,  and  to  ask  his  correspondent  to  "  get 
at  the  views  of  some  experienced  man "  as  to  the 
efficiency  of  a  plan  which  he  had  conceived  for  plat 
ing,  and  making  turrets  on  these ;  and  ends  a  long 
letter  with,  "  We  are  gradually  recovering  our  self- 
respect,  and  shall  get  some  good  out  of  much  evil/' 
referring  to  the  stampede  at  Bull  Run. 

During  the  summer  and  autumn  of  1861,  prior  to 
the  seizure  of  Mason  and  Slidell,  a  number  of  letters 
passed  between  my  father  and  his  old  correspondent, 
Nassau  Senior.  I  give  some  of  these  as  showing 
very  forcibly  the  different  points  of  view  of  Ameri 
cans  and  English  on  the  same  subject. 

NASSAU  W.    SENIOR  TO   J.    M.    FORBES. 

CHATEAU  DE  TOCQUEVILLE,  August  20,  1861. 

MY  DEAR  MR.  FORBES, — I  write  from  a  place  hi 
which  your  name  is  often  mentioned,  and  always  with 
great  gratitude.  Madame  de  Tocqueville,  after  an 
illness  of  thirteen  or  fourteen  years,  is  better  than  I 


246  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

have  seen  her  since  1848.  The  first  use  that  she 
has  made  of  returning  strength  has  been  to  unite  a 
little  party  of  her  old  friends,  —  the  Beaumonts, 
Ampere,  and  ourselves, — and  we  are  passing  charm 
ing  mornings  in  walking  and  driving,  and  evenings 
in  talking  and  hearing  Ampere  read  Moliere,  — 
which  is  better  than  most  acting. 

I  find  the  general  opinion  in  France  and  in  Eng 
land  as  to  your  affairs  identical. 

It  is  a  general  conviction  that  the  secession  is  one 
of  the  wildest  and  wickedest  acts  that  has  ever  been 
committed ;  that  you  will  beat  the  seceders,  but  that 
you  will  not  so  far  conquer  them  as  to  make  them 
your  subjects,  or  even  portions  of  your  federation ; 
that  having  humiliated  and  punished  them  you  will 
dictate  your  own  terms  on  which  you  will  allow 
them  to  go ;  that  those  terms  will  probably  be  that 
you  will  keep  New  Orleans  and  Western  Virginia ; 
that  you  will  deprive  them  of  any  right  to  terri 
tories,  and  probably  prohibit  their  having  a  slave 
trade.  As  you  are  fond  of  tariffs  and  have  not  yet 
found  out  that  they  do  more  harm  to  the  nation 
that  makes  them  than  to  the  nation  against  which 
they  are  directed,  we  suppose  that  you  will  enact 
against  them  a  hostile  tariff. 

We  all  bitterly  deplore  the  defeat  at  Bull's  Run, 
believing  that  it  will  prolong  the  war. 

We  also  think  that  our  conduct  to  you  has  been 
perfectly  right,  and  that  your  complaints  of  it  are 
the  childish  folly  of  a  democracy  which  has  never 
met  with  a  check  before,  and  like  other  spoilt  chil- 


THE  CONDUCT  OF  THE  WAR  247 

dren  beats  the  chair  over  which  it  has  fallen.  You 
will  not  agree  with  me,  I  know,  for  even  your  good 
sense  has  not  saved  you  altogether  from  participat 
ing  in  the  unreasonableness  of  those  about  you. 

The  state  of  this  country  is  painful.  France  is  a 
witch,  who  has  sold  herself  to  the  devil,  on  the  con 
dition  that  he  shall  give  power  to  hurt  others. 
L.  N.'s  offer  to  her  was  made  to  our  Saviour,  when 
Satan,  having  shown  him  all  the  kingdoms  of  the 
world  and  the  glory  thereof,  said,  "  All  this  will  I 
give  thee  if  thou  wilt  worship  me." 

The  indignation,  shame,  and  depression  of  the 
higher  and  educated  classes  is  indescribable. 

We  intend  to  wander  over  the  east  and  south  of 
France,  and  return  to  England  in  the  beginning  of 
October.  Kindest  regards. 

Ever  yours,  N.  W.  SENIOR. 

J.   M.   FORBES   TO  NASSAU  W.   SENIOR. 

NAUSHON  ISLAND,  September  30,  1861. 

DEAR  MR.  SENIOR,  —  Your  note  from  the  Cha 
teau  de  Tocqueville  reached  me  a  few  days  since. 
It  must  have  been  a  most  agreeable  reunion  there. 

We  here  feel  more  and  more  each  day  the  miracle 
of  M.  de  Tocqueville' s  prophetic  vision  of  our  his 
tory.  It  seems  almost  like  clairvoyance  !  Our  Chan- 
ning's  prevoyance  of  the  results  of  our  Texas  land 
thefts  is  almost  as  strange.  Such  men  of  genius 
may  well  be  called  seers. 

I  am  sorry  that  you  still  class  me  with  the  crowd 
who  always  seek  to  forget  their  own  sins  in  abusing 


248  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

their  neighbors.  The  fact  is,  all  my  prepossessions 
were  in  favor  of  England,  and  I  had  watched  with 
the  greatest  satisfaction  the  subsidence  of  the  old 
animosities,  growing  out  of  the  two  wars,  and  the 
growth  of  that  good  feeling  which  ought  to  animate 
the  two  nations  who  are,  or  might  be,  the  bulwark 
of  free  institutions  against  the  despotisms  of  the 
Old  World. 

When  we  cast  off  the  nightmare  despotism,  which 
had  so  long  ruled  us,  the  slave  oligarchy,  which 
sympathized  with  Russia  because  of  serfdom,  and 
dismissed  your  minister  to  show  their  homage  to 
the  Czar,  and  which  refused  you  a  limited  right  of 
search,  because  it  favored  the  slave  trade ;  in  fine, 
when  at  last  we  placed  ourselves  right  on  the  ques 
tion  of  slavery,  which  has  always  been  a  reproach 
from  you  to  us,  I  thought  the  entente  cordiale  was 
complete.  I  did  not  look  for  material  aid  nor  want 
it,  but  only  such  forbearance  of  countenance  to 
wards  our  "  Sepoys  "  as  would  help  to  discourage 
them,  and  would  bring  our  two  nations  still  more 
into  harmony. 

Perhaps  I  feel  the  disappointment  more  bitterly 
than  the  mob  does,  because  my  hope  and  pre 
judices  were  strongly  for  a  warm  English  alliance — 
now,  I  fear,  deferred  another  twenty  years.  Your 
"  Times  "  I  expected  nothing  better  from  than  we 
have  had  in  its  cold  sneers  at  the  breaking  of  our 
bubble  of  democracy,  but  from  your  ministry  I  did 
look  for  something  better  than  a  proclamation  of 
strict  neutrality,  putting  us  upon  precisely  the  same 


THE  CONDUCT  OF  THE  WAR  249 

footing  with  our  "  Sepoys/'  forbidding  either  party 
to  bring  prizes  into  your  ports,  prohibiting  your 
subjects  aiding  either ;  and  this,  too,  issued  just  as 
our  new  minister  was  arriving,  thus  giving  him  no 
opportunity  to  confer  upon  mutual  interests  \  for  I 
contend  that  it  is  our  mutual  interests  that  have 
been  endangered,  not  ours  alone. 

I  beg  your  Sepoys'  pardon  for  naming  them  with 
ours.  They  at  least  had  foreign  conquerors,  and 
a  hated  religion  to  conspire  against,  and  yet  we 
watched  your  Indian  battles  with  a  brother's  eye, 
and  canonized  your  Havelocks,  Hodsons,  and  other 
martyrs,  as  if  they  had  been  our  own.  Even  our 
press,  loose  as  it  is,  uttered  no  sound  of  exultation 
at  what  seemed  at  one  time  to  be  the  downfall  of 
your  Indian  empire. 

Had  your  Sepoys  brought  a  prize  into  our  Cali 
fornia  ports,  we  should  have  known  only  the  British 
owner,  and  restored  her.  Once  more  I  beg  your 
Sepoys'  pardon.  They  were  not  guilty  of  the  deep 
crime  against  their  nationality  and  the  principles 
of  government  which  marks  our  more  barbarous 
rebels ! 

One  word  about  the  Morrill  tariff.  It  is  a  la 
bored,  clumsy  production,  and  it  will  fall  by  its  own 
weight.  Some  of  its  blunders  have  been  partially 
corrected ;  but  you  mistake  the  intention  of  those 
who  passed  it,  or  at  least  of  the  majority  of  them. 

Its  aim  was  to  substitute  the  steadiness  of  spe 
cific  duties  for  the  vibrating,  cheating  system  of  ad 
valorem.  Certain  high  duties  were  doubtless  smug- 


250  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

gled  in  under  guise  of  specifics,  and  the  extreme 
difficulty  of  so  framing  our  specific  duties  that  our 
poorer  classes  shall  not  pay  the  same  duties,  per 
yard  or  per  pound,  on  their  cheap  cloth  or  tea,  will 
probably  cause  a  repeal  of  the  tariff.  Yet  I  think 
British  experience  and  opinion  favor  the  principle  of 
specific  rather  than  ad  valorem  duties.  One  tends 
to  cheat  the  people  who  buy  the  poorest  qualities, 
the  other  tends  to  enormous  frauds  against  govern 
ment  and  profits  by  false  swearing,  and  encourages 
the  use  of  poor,  showy  goods,  as  against  the  more 
substantial  ones  which  come  in  under  specifics. 

You  are  a  little  more  encouraging  as  to  results 
than  you  were,  but  I  still  think  you  do  not  properly 
appreciate  the  fact  that  we  are  not  fighting  to  sub 
jugate  the  South,  but  to  put  down  a  small  class 
who  have  conspired  against  the  people,  and  who  are 
a  thousand  times  worse  enemies  of  the  mass  of  the 
people  at  the  South  than  the  North. 

The  only  pinch  is  our  finances.  Cannot  you  help 
us  upon  the  text  of  the  cutting  within,  if  you  find 
that  sound  ?  Our  moneyed  men  continue  to  take 
their  tone  very  much  from  England,  and  confident 
views  of  financial  success  coming  from  your  side 
have  great  weight.  .  .  . 

Very  truly  yours,  J.  M.  FORBES. 


THE  CONDUCT  OF  THE  WAR  251 

NASSAU  W.    SENIOR  TO   J.   M.   FORBES. 

13  HYDE  PARK  GATE,  KENSINGTON, 
November  20,  1861. 

MY  DEAR  MR.  FORBES,  —  I  am  going  to  repub- 
lish  my  articles  in  Reviews;  they  will  form  about 
four  volumes.  Among  them  is  one,  called  "  Euro 
pean  and  American  State  Confederacies/'  in  which 
I  consider  whether  the  American  Union  be  a  na 
tional  union,  or  a  confederation,  whether  allegiance 
be  due  to  the  State,  or  to  the  Union,  and  I  decide 
that  it  is  a  national  union,  and  consequently  that 
secession  is  rebellion  and  treason.  Pray  look  at 
the  article  :  you  will  find  it  in  the  number  for  Jan 
uary,  1846.  But  I  admit  that  the  question  is  one 
of  difficulty,  and  that  there  are  great  authorities  on 
each  side.  If  my  opinion  on  this  legal  question  be 
wrong,  if  the  Union  be  a  mere  treaty  like  the  Ger 
man  Bund,  every  American  owes  allegiance  to  his 
own  State,  and  if  that  State  secede,  he  would  be 
guilty  of  rebellion  and  treason  if  he  did  not  secede 
too.  Now  Lord  Russell  did  not  feel  competent  to 
decide  this  difficult  legal  question  —  and  I  think 
that  he  could  not  decide  it.  Yet  it  is  for  not  de 
ciding  it  at  once,  and  declaring  the  seceders  rebels, 
that  you  have  been  abusing  him  and  us  for  three 
months.  I  think  that  on  consideration  you  will  feel 
that  the  most  certain  means  of  destroying  our  sym 
pathy  with  the  North,  and  turning  it  towards  the 
South,  were  your  threats  that  as  soon  as  you  had 
settled  the  affair  with  the  South  you  would  turn  on 
us  and  punish  us,  by  war,  for  our  want  of  sympathy. 


252  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

One  thing  has  tended  much  to  embitter  us,  your 
different  treatment  of  France  and  of  us.  The  con 
duct  of  the  two  governments  has  been  identical, 
but  you  have  been  as  civil  to  France  as  you  have 
been  rude  to  us.  Now  I  happen  to  know  that  the 
French  feeling  is  with  the  South.  They  say  that 
the  New  Orleans  people  are  their  brethren.  They 
are  all  friends  of  slavery,  and  I  have  peculiar  rea 
sons  for  believing  that  Louis  Napoleon  proposed  to 
our  government  to  join  him  in  breaking  the  block 
ade.  You  know  that  I  have  access  to  accurate 
sources  of  intelligence,  and  you  may  believe  this. 
My  only  wish,  from  the  time  that  the  enormous 
armies  and  the  military  success  of  the  South  showed 
(at  least  it  so  seemed  to  me)  that  you  might  beat, 
but  could  not  conquer  her,  has  been  for  the  ter 
mination  of  the  contest,  and  as  I  think  that  loans 
to  either  party  would  tend  to  prolong  it,  I  own  that 
I  hope  that  none  will  be  made. 

We  hear  little  from  the  South,  but  the  little 
which  we  do  hear  leads  us  to  think  that  you  are 
mistaken  in  believing  that  there  is  a  strong  Union 
party  there.  They  seem  to  be  as  determined  as  you 
are. 

Can  you  tell  me  anything  of  our  Sault  Ste.  Marie 
prospects?  I  suppose  that  the  war  adjourns  all 
sales. 

Ever  yours,          N.  W.  SENIOR. 


THE  CONDUCT  OF  THE  WAR  253 

J.  M.  FOKBES  TO  NASSAU  W.  SENIOR. 

BOSTON,  December  10,  1861. 

MY  DEAR  MR.  SENIOR,  —  I  have  yours  of  the  20th 
ulto. 

I  shall  read  with  much  interest  your  article  upon 
the  [nature  of  our  government,  and  am  glad  you 
came  to  the  same  conclusion  which  everybody  here 
long  since  arrived  at  except  Calhoun  and  his  gang 
of  conspirators. 

I  don't  blame  Lord  Russell  for  being  puzzled  at 
any  question  which  you  say  has  two  sides  to  it ;  but 
I  do  blame  him  for  jumping  at  his  conclusions 
in  such  hot  haste  that  he  could  not  await  the  arrival 
of  our  new  minister,  whose  explanation  might  have 
given  him  some  light. 

You  don't  blame  the  doctor  (Medico)  when, 
called  to  a  serious  case,  he  happens  to  take  the  dark 
view  of  it,  and  sentences  the  patient  to  "dissolu 
tion  ; "  but  you  do  think  him  a  blunderer  if  he 
hastens  to  tell  the  victim  that  he  has  only  to  make 
his  arrangements  for  his  funeral ! 

Louis  Napoleon,  by  quietly  holding  back  his  opin 
ions  and  then  uttering  them  covered  up  with  sugared 
words,  puts  himself,  with  the  masses  of  our  people, 
where  England  was  a  few  months  since,  our  natural 
ally !  Of  course  it  is  an  enormous  humbug,  and 
thinking  men  are  not  gulled  by  it,  but  none  the 
less  [the  situation]  operates  to  inflame  the  old  ani 
mosities  that  had  grown  out  of  two  wars  and  that 
had  been  just  forgotten. 

Another    thing    must   not   be    forgotten.     The 


254  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

French  press  has  not  the  chance,  even  when  it  has 
the  will,  to  do  the  mischief  that  yours  and  ours 
has.  We  hardly  read  anything  from  the  French 
papers ;  they  still  less  read  American  papers,  and 
this  makes  the  grand  difference  between  our  situa 
tion  as  relating  to  the  two  countries. 

You  read  our  New  York  "  Herald  "  edited  by  a 
renegade  Scotchman  .  .  .  and  you  take  it  for  the 
representative  of  American  journalism !  The  "  Her 
ald  "  is  really  the  organ  of  the  seceders,  it  was  so 
openly  until  after  Sumter  surrendered ;  and  only 
came  over  nominally  to  the  Northern  side  under  the 
terrors  of  mob  law.  It  has  since  served  its  mas 
ters  still  better  by  sowing  the  seeds  of  dissension 
between  us  and  England. 

We,  with  perhaps  equal  blindness,  permit  the 
"  Times  "  and  half  a  dozen  other  papers  to  stand  for 
"  England."  I  look  for  a  grand  paper  duello  upon 
the  Trent  question,  and  shall  be  relieved  if  it  goes 
no  further.  Should  the  questions  assume  a  warlike 
aspect,  we  shall  only  be  driven  the  sooner  to  our  last 
desperate  resort,  emancipation.  We  are  now  only 
divided  into  two  parties  at  the  North,  viz.:  those 
who  would  use  the  negro  when  we  can  see  no  other 
way  of  conquering ;  and  secondly,  those  who  would 
use  the  negro  at  once,  wherever  he  can  be  used  to 
strengthen  us  or  weaken  the  enemy  !  The  logic  of 
events  has  been  from  day  to  day  settling  this  ques 
tion,  and  if  our  talking  men  in  Congress  can  only 
be  patient  or  self-denying  in  the  outpouring  of  pa 
triotic  words,  we  shall  go  on  fast  enough.  .  .  . 


THE  CONDUCT   OF  THE  WAR  255 

You  cannot  believe  we  shall  subjugate  ten  mil 
lions  of  people.  Nor  I ;  but  classify  these  ten 
millions  and  all  is  changed.  At  least  two  are 
avowed  loyalists  in  the  border  States ;  four  more 
are  blacks  ready  to  help  us  when  we  will  let  them ; 
three  more  are  poor  whites  whose  interests  are 
clearly  with  us  and  against  their  would-be  masters. 
How  long  will  it  be  before  the  avowals  of  their 
masters,  aided  by  the  suffering  of  the  war,  will 
open  their  eyes? 

This  leaves  one  million,  of  all  ages  and  sexes, 
who,  through  owning  slaves  and  connection  with 
slaveholders,  may  think  they  have  a  class  interest 
in  the  success  of  the  rebellion.  This  class  we  can 
crush  out  —  or  what  will  be  left  of  them  after  the 
war  debt  of  the  rebels  reaches  its  proper  value  — 
whenever  we  can  divide  the  four  million  of  poor 
whites,  by  an  operation  upon  their  eyes  I 

But  if  I  underrate  the  difficulty,  the  necessity  for 
doing  it  now  is  all  the  greater  !  If  hard  now,  how 
much  harder  will  it  be  after  we  shall  have,  as  you 
desire,  permitted  them  to  separate.  Now  they  have  no 
manufactures,  no  foreign  alliances,  no  warlike  stores 
except  what  they  stole  from  us,  and  these  rapidly 
diminishing.  They  have  missed  their  first  spring  in 
which  lies  the  strength  of  a  conspiracy ;  while  our 
cold  Anglo-Saxon  blood  is  just  getting  roused  from 
the  lethargy  of  a  long  peace  and  of  overmuch 
prosperity.  We  are  just  ready  to  begin  to  fight. 
We  all  feel  that  what  is  now  a  war  between  the 
people  and  a  small  class  would,  after  a  separation, 


256  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

become  a  war  of  sections.  As  for  peace,  nobody 
believes  it  possible ;  a  truce  we  might  have,  to  give 
them  time  to  gather  breath  !  It  is  only  a  question 
between  war  to  the  end  now  and  a  chronic  state  of 
war  with  two  standing  armies,  two  navies,  two  corps 
of  diplomatists  seeking  alliances  in  every  court  in 
Europe,  to  end  in  another  death  struggle.  There  is 
no  peace  for  us,  unless  we  either  conquer  the  arro 
gant  slave-owner  classes  who  have  so  long  ruled  us 
and  bullied  you,  or  permit  them  by  a  compromise  to 
continue  and  extend  their  combination  with  our 
baser  class  and  to  drag  us  into  a  grand  slave  empire 
which  shall  absorb  the  West  Indies  and  Mexico  and 
Central  America. 

A  bold  stand  at  the  polls  by  the  North  in  1850 
would  have  given  us  the  victory  peacefully;  now 
we  must  fight  for  it,  or  yield  to  the  basest  faction 
that  ever  ruled  a  country.  Better  a  ten  years'  war 
than  this ;  but  it  will  not  be  a  long  war. 

The  conspirators  counted  upon  an  early  success  in 
arms  and  a  division  of  the  North.  Foiled  in  this, 
their  only  hope  is  in  foreign  intervention.  I  have 
no  doubt  what  you  tell  me  is  true  of  Louis  Napo 
leon,  still  less  that  he  secretly  gave  the  rebels  hopes 
of  aid,  nor  that  they  have  construed  your  course 
to  favor  them.  Had  you  squarely  taken  the  same 
ground  that  we  did  towards  your  Canadian  rebels, 
this  hope  would  have  been  extinguished ;  and  now, 
if  you  want  cotton,  if  you  want  trade,  if  you  want 
to  pave  the  way  to  a  real  alliance  with  the  only  free 
nation  besides  yourselves  on  the  globe,  you  ought 


THE   CONDUCT  OF   THE  WAR  257 

to  help  us  in  all  legitimate  ways.  You  should 
encourage  our  loan,  you  should  sharpen  your  police 
to  detect  the  outfit  of  hostile  vessels,  you  should 
hold  the  Nashville  strictly  accountable  for  her  acts 
of  pillage  and  destruction,  giving  her  the  experience 
of  a  long  trial  in  your  courts,  if  only  to  discourage 
other  pirates  from  being  their  own  judges  of  what 
property  they  may  appropriate. 

Do  this  and  the  war  will  be  short.  Four  months 
ago  an  offer  from  you  to  do  what  we  should  have 
readily  done  when  your  Indian  empire  was  threat 
ened,  had  it  seemed  necessary  or  proper,  would  have 
ended  the  war  before  this,  —  namely,  to  throw  open 
to  us  for  purchase  your  armories  and  your  ironclad 
shipyards.  We  might  not  have  accepted  the  offer, 
but  it  would  have  destroyed  the  rebels'  last  hope. 
I  don't  complain  of  your  not  doing  it,  but  simply 
indicate  what  for  the  sake  of  both  countries  I  wish 
might  have  been  your  policy ! 

As  for  the  Sault  Ste.  Marie,  the  pine  lands  must 
wait  for  the  prairie  farmers  to  build  again ;  but  the 
developments  in  our  mineral  lands  are  said  to  be 
magnificent,  and  to  promise  results  next  summer. 
Very  truly  yours,  J.  M.  FORBES. 


CHAPTER  X 

THE    SANITARY    COMMISSION 

IN  November,  1861,  my  brother  applied  for  a 
commission  in  the  First  Massachusetts  Cavalry,  and 
my  father  felt  justified  in  supporting  his  application 
by  the  following  letter  to  the  governor :  — 

J.  M.  FORBES  TO  GOVERNOR  JOHN  A.  ANDREW. 

BOSTON,  November  4,  1861. 

MY  DEAR  SIR,  —  I  beg  leave  to  second  my  son's 
application  for  a  commission  in  the  First  Cavalry 
Regiment,  and  to  say  that  nothing  would  induce  me 
to  seek  so  perilous  an  honor  for  him  but  a  convic 
tion  that  he  is  morally  and  physically  well  adapted 
to  do  good  service  to  the  good  cause.  Moreover,  I 
know  that  he  is  actuated  by  the  highest  motives  in 
seeking  service :  such  motives  as  alone  can  reconcile 
parents  to  offering  their  sons ! 

I  do  not  seek  for  him  any  specified  position,  but 
only  ask  that  he  should  have  a  chance,  before  he 
is  fixed  in  the  lowest  grade,  to  show  whether  he  is 
fit  for  anything  higher ;  in  short,  that  he  shall  be 
judged  by  what  he  can  do,  rather  than  by  his  age, 
which  is  only  just  past  twenty-one. 

Very  truly  yours,  JOHN  M.  FORBES. 


THE   SANITARY  COMMISSION  259 

In  due  course  my  brother  received  his  commission 
as  lieutenant,  and  soon  afterwards  joined  his  regi 
ment  at  Readville. 

News  came,  in  the  fall  of  1861,  of  the  great 
hardships  of  our  men  in  the  Southern  prisons,  and 
especially  at  Richmond,  where  Colonel  W.  Raymond 
Lee,  Paul  Revere,  and  C.  L.  Peirson  were  confined. 
Governor  Andrew  had  no  appropriation  available; 
and  the  legislature  was  not  in  session ;  but  my 
father  offered  to  send  to  Richmond  whatever  sum 
the  governor  thought  best;  and  accordingly  sent, 
through  some  of  his  semi-loyal  Baltimore  friends,  a 
draft  for  $1000,  to  be  paid  there  to  Colonel  W. 
Raymond  Lee,  or  Adjutant  C.  L.  Peirson,  of  the 
Twentieth  Massachusetts.  This  promptly  reached 
its  destination,  and  was  of  great  use  in  mitigat 
ing  the  situation  of  many  of  our  officers  and  men 
who  were  in  want  of  blankets  and  other  necessaries. 
In  due  time  an  act  of  the  legislature  was  passed 
at  the  governor's  suggestion,  reimbursing  this  out 
lay. 

The  seizure  of  Slidell  and  Mason  came  on  the  8th 
of  November,  1861.  This  event  and  all  that  fol 
lowed  are  matter  of  history.  On  what  thin  ice  the 
two  countries  had  come  is  manifest  by  the  following 
extract  from  one  of  Mr.  Ashburner's  letters  to  my 
father :  — 

"  I  feel  in  the  deepest  anxiety  regarding  this  un 
fortunate  affair  of  the  St.  Jacinto.  I  cannot  believe 
that  anything  so  horrible  as  war  with  the  United 
States  will  result  from  so  inadequate  a  cause,  yet 


260  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

the  whole  country  rings  with  it ;  and  as  the  feeling 
of  irritation  on  your  side  seems  to  be  equally  great, 
I  fear  that  every  possible  advantage  will  be  taken  of 
the  passions  of  two  great  nations  to  bring  them  into 
collision,  in  spite  of  their  interests,  which  are  so 
deeply  involved  in  the  maintenance  of  peace.  That 
the  danger  is  looked  upon  as  most  imminent  you 
may  judge  by  the  course  of  the  government  with 
regard  to  the  exportation  of  saltpetre.  The  Du- 
ponts,  of  Delaware,  came  over  here  last  week  and 
cleared  the  market  of  that  article.  They  bought 
up  the  whole  stock,  some  3000  tons,  and  were  about 
to  ship  it  when  the  affair  of  the  Trent  transpired. 
Within  twenty-four  hours  government  laid  an  em 
bargo  upon  it,  —  a  very  extraordinary  and  extreme 
measure  here,  where  the  utmost  freedom  in  trade 
is  now  the  established  rule  for  the  country,  even 


in  war." 


How  the  Trent  affair  as  a  whole  appeared  to  my 
father,  after  the  first  excitement  of  it  all  had  passed, 
will  be  seen  from  the  following  letter :  — 

J.   M.   FORBES  TO   NASSAU  W.   SENIOR. 

BOSTON,  20  December,  1861. 

Nothing  from  you  lately.  You  will  be  glad  to 
hear  that  our  people  here  are  within  the  control 
of  the  government  in  regard  to  the  difficulty  with 
England,  and  unless  the  demands  are  made  in  such 
a  spirit  and  manner  as  to  make  it  seem  that  war  is 
intended  sooner  or  later,  we  can  tide  over  the  pre 
sent  trouble.  If  our  government  or  people  are  made 


THE   SANITARY  COMMISSION  261 

to  feel  that  the  Trent  affair  is  merely  a  pretext,  and 
that  after  making  disagreeable  concessions  there,  we 
shall  only  be  called  upon  the  sooner  to  "  eat  dirt " 
in  some  other  case,  we  shall  of  course  fight  at  first, 
coute  qu'il  coute. 

This  I  do  not  anticipate,  but  I  hope  you  states 
men  will  look  ahead  beyond  the  immediate  horizon 
and  try  to  treat  this  case  so  that  it  shall  not  further 
embitter  the  feelings  of  the  two  nations,  and  thus 
lay  the  foundations  of  a  future  war,  whether  of 
tariffs  or  cannon ! 

It  will  be  unfortunate,  for  instance,  if  you  make 
stringent  demands  for  reparation  of  a  wrong  which 
to  our  common  people,  and  to  the  common  sense  of 
the  world,  will  in  so  large  a  matter  between  nations 
look  like  a  technical  or  legal  quibble. 

You  cannot  convince  our  people  that  you  are 
justified  in  humiliating  us  in  this  our  extremity 
upon  the  ground  that  our  frigate  exercised  an  ad 
mitted  right  in  a  wrong  manner,  the  wrong  growing 
out  of  a  generous  motive  toward  your  ship  or  your 
nation. 

I  know  it  is  an  important  principle  that  no  naval 
officer  should  take  the  office  of  a  judge,  and  I  shall 
be  glad  to  see  our  officers  and  yours  put  upon  their 
responsibility  to  conform,  in  manner  and  in  sub 
stance  both,  to  the  Law  of  Nations,  —  but  you 
ought  not  to  push  the  legal  advantage,  if  you  have 
one,  too  far,  where  the  substantial  equity  will  seem 
to  be  with  us !  If  you  do,  it  will  be  considered  like 
striking  us  while  we  are  down,  and  will  be  remem- 


262  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

bered  and  resented  long  after  this  generation  has 
passed  away. 

One  cannot  yet  fairly  judge  how  far  our  gov 
ernment  and  people  may  be  pushed  in  the  way  of 
concession.  If  we  do  give  way  much  beyond  what 
seems  to  us  fair,  you  may  put  it  down  to  our  in 
veterate  earnestness  to  whip  our  domestic  enemy. 

I  hope  and  believe  we  shah"  get  over  this  near 
danger  of  collision  with  you,  but  I  want  to  see  the 
future  guarded  too. 

If,  for  instance,  you  propose  to  leave  the  whole 
question  to  arbitration  of  parties  as  nearly  disinter 
ested  as  the  case  admits  of,  I  think  it  will  be  received 
as  an  earnest  of  a  better  state  of  feeling.  The  king 
of  Italy  and  the  Czar,  though  opposed  to  republi 
can  institutions,  would,  I  think,  be  accepted  as  fair 
referees,  of  course  after  proper  argument  being 
heard  from  your  jurists  and  ours. 

On  the  other  hand,  to  insist  upon  your  own  inter 
pretation  of  the  international  law,  or  upon  referring 
it  solely  to  Louis  Napoleon,  will,  even  if  we  concede 
it,  leave  a  sting  that  will  rankle  for  half  a  century ! 
It  will  confirm  all  our  worst  fears  that  your  rulers  are 
ready  to  catch  at  any  pretext,  and  risk  any  amount 
of  suffering  to  your  own  people  if  they  can  only 
thus  make  sure  of  the  failure  of  republican  institu 
tions.  The  prevailing  opinion  is  that  such  is  the 
disposition  of  your  government,  and  I  daily  hear 
men  of  property  and  of  general  worldly  prudence 
advocate  the  necessity  of  absolute  resistance  to  any 
demand  for  concession.  They  reason  that  it  would 


THE  SANITARY  COMMISSION  263 

break  down  the  spirit  of  our  people  and  create  inter 
nal  divisions  to  a  degree  that  is  worse  than  foreign 
war !  Their  policy  would  be  to  let  the  foreign  de 
mands  intensify  our  efforts  against  the  rebels,  and 
the  moment  it  is  ascertained  that  actual  war  will 
result,  let  loose  the  blacks,  cut  the  dikes  which 
confine  the  Mississippi,  and  deluge  New  Orleans  and 
the  whole  of  the  flat  country  on  its  banks ;  an  easy 
task! 

A  spark  may  thus  ignite  all  the  elements  of  war, 
while  public  opinion  is  so  nearly  balanced  that  it  is 
only  to-day  that  one  can  speak  for !  To-day  peace 
is  probable  —  to-morrow  it  may  be  impossible. 

Happily  the  balance  turned  in  favor  of  peace.  I 
find  my  father's  recollections  next  referring  to  a 
movement,  by  that  time  well  under  way,  in  which 
he  took  a  great  interest :  — 

"  The  National  Sanitary  Commission  was  one  of 
the  wonders  of  the  war.  Its  idea  may  have  been 
suggested  in  New  York  State,  but  it  dragged  along 
a  good  while  there  without  coming  to  anything, 
and  they  sent  to  Boston  for  help.  A  very  few  men 
met,  either  at  the  city  hall  council  chamber  or  at 
the  green  room  of  the  state  house,  I  forget  which ; 
there  were  not  over  a  half  a  dozen,  and  it  was  a 
question  what  to  do.  But  time  pressed,  and  some 
one  suggested  that  it  was  still  a  meeting  and  could 
appoint  a  committee.  So,  without  giving  particu 
lars,  we  prepared  a  circular  stating  the  object  of  the 
meeting  and  our  appointment  of  a  very  large  com- 


264  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

mittee  (picked  out  of  the  whole  Massachusetts  pub 
lic),  with  J.  Huntington  Wolcott1  as  president,  to 
carry  into  effect  a  resolution  (also  prepared  by  us) 
for  raising  and  spending  money  in  concert  with  the 
New  Yorkers.  Mr.  Wolcott  was  then  a  man  of  busi 
ness,  but  was  not  present,  and  I  doubt  whether  to 
this  day  he  has  ever  known  or  dreamed  of  the  small- 
ness  of  the  constituency  which  appointed  him  and 
his  very  respectable  associates.  However  this  may  be, 
they  took  hold  with  a  will,  did  their  work  just  as  well 
as  if  a  full  meeting  at  Faneuil  Hall  had  called  them 
into  being,  and  laid  the  foundation  for  the  great 
success  of  the  Sanitary  Commission,  which  was  ex 
tended  all  over  the  loyal  States,  with  W.  G.  Eliot  at 
St.  Louis  commanding  its  Western  wing.  They  raised 
several  millions  of  dollars,  spent  the  money  judi 
ciously,  and  not  only  by  active  operations,  but  by  the 
stimulus  given  to  the  slower  but  much  more  exten 
sive  work  of  the  Surgeons'  and  Commissary  depart 
ments  had  great  effect  in  meeting  the  emergencies 
of  the  field.  Its  very  irregularity  gave  the  Commis 
sion  speed,  and  it  often  got  ahead  of  the  efficient 
army  arrangements,  hampered  as  they  were  by  red 
tape  and  system.  To  hear  the  praises  of  its  advo 
cates,  one  would  think  that  the  chief  supplies  to  the 
wounded  through  the  war  came  from  the  Volunteer 
Sanitary.  This  is  simply  absurd,  but  we  can  hardly 
overrate  the  real  good  which  the  Commission  did  in 
the  field,  nor  its  reflex  influence  in  keeping  patriotic 
men  and  women  busy  all  over  the  country  doing 
1  Father  of  the  present  governor  of  Massachusetts. 


THE  SANITARY  COMMISSION  265 

their  part  of  the  great  work.  I  remember  Charles 
H.  Dalton  and  Miss  Abby  May  and  Miss  I.  Gray 
working  zealously  in  this  direction.  Dr.  Henry  W. 
Bellows  was  the  nominal  head  of  the  Commission, 
and  did  much.  The  practical  work  was  in  the 
hands  of  F.  L.  Olmsted,  the  landscape  gardener, 
and  of  his  deputy,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Knapp,  of  Plym 
outh." 

Some  of  the  questions  which  had  to  be  dealt 
with  by  the  Sanitary  Commission,  and  its  influence 
on  legislation,  will  be  gathered  from  the  following 
letters  which  I  find  among  my  father's  papers  :  — 

FREDERICK  LAW  OLMSTED  TO  J.  M.  FORBES. 

U.  S.  SANITARY  COMMISSION, 
WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  December  15,  1861. 

MY  DEAR  SIR,  —  I  have  just  received  your  favor 
of  the  12th,  and  am  exceedingly  glad  there  is  so 
good  a  prospect  of  financial  aid  to  the  commis 
sion  from  Massachusetts.  Your  contributions  of 
goods  have  astonished  me  and  overrun  all  my  calcu 
lations.  You  have  done  in  a  month  nearly  four 
times  as  much  as  the  New  York  association  —  of 
which  we  had  been  quite  proud  —  in  six  months ! 
If  the  present  rate  of  supply  continues,  I  shall  soon 
be  in  concern  to  know  where  to  put  it. 

I  shall  refer  that  portion  of  your  letter  which 
relates  to  the  surgeon-general  to  Dr.  Bellows.  The 
simplest  statement  of  the  case  would  be  perhaps 
that  with  an  army  of  600,000  fresh  men,  with  im 
promptu  officers,  it  is  criminal  weakness  to  intrust 


266  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

such  important  responsibilities  as  those  resting  on 
the  surgeon-general  to  a  self-satisfied,  supercilious, 
bigoted  blockhead,  merely  because  he  is  the  oldest 
of  the  old  mess-room  doctors  of  the  old  frontier- 
guard  of  the  country.  He  knows  nothing  and  does 
nothing,  and  is  capable  of  knowing  nothing  and 
doing  nothing  but  quibble  about  matters  of  form 
and  precedent,  and  sign  his  name  to  papers  which 
require  that  ceremony  to  be  performed  before  they 
can  be  admitted  to  eternal  rest  in  the  pigeonholes 
of  the  bureau.  I  write  this  personally  rather  than  as 
the  secretary,  and  from  general  report  rather  than 
personal  knowledge,  but  if  it  were  not  true  is  it  not 
certain  that  as  secretary  of  the  Sanitary  Commission, 
after  six  months'  dealings  with  these  poor,  green 
volunteer  sawbones,  I  should  have  seen  some  evi 
dence  of  life  in  and  from  their  chief  ? 

You  may  contradict  the  report  to  which  you  refer, 
that  the  contributions  made  to  the  Sanitary  Com 
mission  for  the  benefit  of  the  soldiers'  sick  have 
been  diverted  to  the  aid  of  the  exiles  of  the  rebel 
lion.  To  this  date  no  funds  of  the  commission 
have  been  disbursed  in  St.  Louis.  Probably  the 
local  commission  there  has  done  something  which 
has  given  rise  to  the  report. 

I  have  directed  Dr.  Ware,  in  visiting  Fort  Monroe, 
to  ascertain  the  condition  of  the  refugees  there,  and 
report,  but  to  give  them  no  aid  except  under  advice 
or  in  an  emergency. 

Very  respectfully  yours, 

FRED.  LAW  OLMSTED. 


THE  SANITARY  COMMISSION  267 

DR.  H.  W.  BELLOWS,  INCLOSING  THE  ABOVE,  TO  J.  M. 
FORBES. 

NEW  YORK,  December  19, 1861. 

MY  DEAR  MR.  FORBES,  —  Mr.  Olmsted  sends  on 
his  letter  for  approval,  and  it  finds  me  flat  on  my 
back,  which  accounts  for  this  delay.  Since  Dr.  Van 
Buren  sent  on  the  memorial  for  signatures,  things 
have  taken  on  a  much  more  active  state  of  quarrel 
between  the  Sanitary  Commission  and  the  Medical 
Bureau.  General  McClellan  sent  for  me  and  asked 
me  to  draw  a  bill  for  the  reorganization  of  the  Med 
ical  Bureau,  which  I  did.  He  carefully  considered 
and  wholly  approved  the  bill,  and  personally  went 
with  me  to  the  President  to  ask  his  support ;  to  the 
Secretary  of  War  (not  at  home),  to  the  Assistant 
Secretary  of  War  (much  the  wiser  man),  who 
heartily  approved.  By  their  advice,  the  bill  was 
brought  forward  in  the  Senate  by  Senator  Wilson 
a  week  ago.  Several  of  the  leading  senators  warmly 
approve  it.  The  bill  strikes  at  all  the  senility  and 
incompetency  in  the  bureau  and  would  put  about 
eight  first-class  men,  selected  by  the  President  out 
of  the  whole  Medical  Staff,  into  the  control  and 
management  of  affairs.  It  would  lay  on  the  shelf, 
on  full  pay,  all  the  venerable  do-nothings  and  senile 
obstructives  that  now  vex  the  health  and  embarass 
the  safety  of  our  troops.  .  .  .  The  Medical  Staff 
(that  is,  all  but  the  Medical  Bureau  and  the  twenty 
men  in  right  line  of  succession)  must  feel  the  bill  to 
be  a  great  boon  to  them,  as  it  opens  eight  prizes 
for  merit  and  competency,  in  their  stupid  seniority 


268  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

system,  where  folly  at  seventy  was  put  in  absolute 
control  of  no-matter-what-amount-of  skill,  know 
ledge,  reputation,  and  fitness  at  forty !  I  told  the 
President,  who  enjoys  a  joke,  that  the  bureau  sys 
tem  at  Washington,  in  which  one  venerable  non- 
compos  succeeded  another  through  successive  ages, 
reminded  me  of  the  man  who,  on  receiving  a  barrel 
of  apples,  eat  every  day  only  those  on  the  point  of 
spoiling,  and  so  at  the  end  of  his  experiment  found 
that  he  had  devoured  a  whole  barrel  of  rotten  apples. 
If  there  were  any  radical  difficulties  about  obtaining 
signatures  to  our  letter,  they  will  all  disappear  when 
our  report  to  the  Secretary  of  War  comes  out,  which 
will  be  in  your  hands  in  about  a  week. 

We  are  very  much  delighted  with  your  financial 
report,  which  will  be  louder  still  when  we  feel  the 
silver  bullets  or  golden  balls  pouring  into  our  nearly 
exhausted  exchequer. 

Commend   me   to   our  active    and    disinterested 
friends,    Mr.  Ward,  Mr.  Norton,  and  the   all-alive 
gentlemen  of  your  monetary  circle. 
Yours  gratefully  and  truly, 

HENRY  W.  BELLOWS. 

I  give  extracts  from  my  father's  reply  to  Mr. 
Olmsted,  but  the  whole  of  his  letter  to  Dr.  Bel 
lows,  as  the  latter  shows  his  characteristic  way  of 
raising  funds  for  the  Sanitary  Commission :  — 


THE   SANITARY  COMMISSION  269 

J.   M.    FORBES   TO   FREDERICK   LAW   OLMSTED. 

BOSTON,  December  21,  1861. 

I  only  received  yours  of  the  13th  yesterday,  but 
to  make  up  for  the  delay,  it  came  indorsed  by  the 
Dr.  with  good  news  of  your  medical  bill,  and  with 
a  good  story.  I  gave  parts  of  it  to  our  committee 
to-day,  much  to  their  edification,  and  it  will  help  me 
in  getting  the  right  names  to  a  petition  which  I 
have  drawn  up  to  Congress,  and  of  which  I  will 
send  you  a  copy  on  Monday.  My  idea  is  to  attack, 
from  this  distance,  the  system  of  seniority  rather 
than  to  make  personal  attacks  upon  individuals, 
and  in  this  way  we  can  get  all  the  good  names  in 
Massachusetts.  The  real  trouble  is  that  so  many  of 
the  bureaux  of  the  government  have  degenerated 
into  mere  receptacles  for  files  of  red  tape,  that  the 
moment  you  attack  one,  it  becomes  personal  to  all 
fossildom,  and  arrays  it  against  changes. 

Can  I  write  personally  to  anybody  to  help  the 
bill  ?  I  know  of  course  our  Massachusetts  delega 
tion,  and  can  if  necessary  make  some  influence 
with  Vermont,  Maine,  Michigan,  Illinois,  Iowa, 
possibly  Missouri;  but  I  don't  want  to  waste  my 
powder  by  stirring  a  hair  beyond  what  is  necessary, 
having  my  hands  overfull.  .  .  . 

All  our  women  are  eager  ;  it  is  only  organization 
and  direction  that  is  wanted  ;  and  this  is  one  of  the 
best  offices  of  the  Sanitary  Commission.  .  .  . 


270  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

J.   M.   FORBES  TO  THE  EEV.   DR.   HENRY   W.  BELLOWS. 

BOSTON,  December  22,  1861. 

I  read  your  message  about  funds  and  some  other 
parts  of  your  letter  to  our  committee,  and  we  voted 
to  send  on  $10,000  at  once.  Hope  to  have  some 
more,  but  it  would  help  us  if  you  would  stir  up 
New  York  a  little  more,  and  have  a  movement 
going  on  there  at  the  same  time.  We  have  in 
hand,  or  promised,  $2000  more,  especially  given  to 
your  Ladies'  Society.  For  the  two  we  are  good  for 
$15,000  in  all  probability,  and  Roxbury  $1500 
more  for  their  Ladies'  Society.  A  strong  effort 
might,  if  essential  at  this  time,  bring  still  more,  and 
we  are  going  on  with  our  systematized  levy.  Possi 
bly  something  of  our  system  might  help  you  in 
New  York.  We  got  a  committee  of  about  twenty 
business  men,  lawyers,  ministers,  and  doctors,  hav 
ing  as  great  a  variety  as  possible,  and  with  power 
to  add  to  their  number.  I  then  had  a  list  made  of 
all  who  could  afford  to  pay  $25  and  upwards  (from 
tax-book)  adding  to  it  out-of-town  names  of  known 
wealth;  then  called  a  meeting  of  committee,  read 
off  the  list  (alphabetically  arranged),  asking  each 
member  to  accept  promptly  the  duty  of  calling  upon 
such  persons  as  he  is  willing  to  —  also  assigning  to 
absent  members  a  fair  proportion.  We  then  fixed 
upon  $200  as  the  maximum  to  be  asked  for,  and 
the  first  week  called  upon  all  who  were  likely 
to  give  $200  and  $100,  not  refusing  $50  when 
offered.  We  had  an  address,  of  which  I  give  you 
a  copy,  and  provided  members  with  slips  printed 


THE   SANITARY  COMMISSION  271 

from  the  newspapers  to  hand  to  our  friends,  and 
save  talking.  The  large  givers  exhausted,  we  came 
down  to  $25,  not  refusing  $10.  Now  we  send  a 
pleasant  collector  known  to  ball  and  theatre  goers, 
to  pick  up  smaller  sums.  Those  who  have  refused 
the  large  sums  may  give  $10  to  the  collector.  I 
had  doubts  about  asking  more  than  $100  of  any 
one,  but  it  has  worked  well  enough.  It  has  been 
considerable  work,  and  I  sometimes  feel  as  if  the 
money  could  have  been  earned  almost  as  easily  as 
begged.  Our  committee  have  worked  with  great 
spirit,  and  now  we  look  for  the  application  of  our 
earnings.  I  hope,  whatever  you  do  with  other 
money  and  things,  that  you  will  be  rigid  as  iron  in 
applying  ours  strictly  to  the  comfort  of  our  soldiers, 
sick  and  well.  No  matter  how  strong  appeals  may 
be  made  for  other  good  objects.  One  instance  of 
deviation  will  check  the  enthusiasm  of  hundreds. 
People  feel  as  if  there  was  some  hope  of  making  an 
impression  on  the  extra  needs  of  the  army  through 
your  organization,  but  if  you  are  tempted  to  try  to 
do  anything  for  other  good  objects,  it  will  seem  like 
risking  a  certain  good  for  a  doubtful  success.  The 
loyal  refugees,  for  instance,  do  or  may  form  such 
an  enormous  object  of  charity,  that  if  we  mean  to 
help  them  at  all  it  must  be  done  by  a  separate  and 
very  large  organization. 

Your  prospect  of  success  with  the  medical  reform 
is  most  cheering ;  if  you  can  effect  it,  that  one  act 
will  be  worth  all  the  rest  of  your  results. 

I  speak  without  any  knowledge  of  persons,  but 


272  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

it  is  clear  that  it  would  be  the  most  wonderful 
chance  ever  heard  of,  if  the  oldest  army  doctors 
proved  up  to  the  mark  !  We  are  preparing  an 
address  to  Congress  which  I  think  all  who  are 
asked  will  sign,  simply  because  it  attacks  the  sys 
tem  of  seniority,  and  protests  against  its  application 
to  our  650,000  men.  I  will  try  to  inclose  a  copy 
of  it.  A  suitable  medical  board  ought  to  be  second 
in  importance  only  to  the  commanding  generals. 
One  is  great  to  destroy,  the  other  ought  to  have 
power  to  save.  The  operations  of  the  generals,  so 
far  as  life  is  concerned,  cover  only  one  quarter  or 
one  fifth  of  the  numbers  which  the  medical  board 
with  sufficient  powers  ought  to  have  an  influence 
over.  The  generals  cause  the  death  of,  say  one 
quarter,  but  even  upon  this  quarter  killed  and 
wounded,  the  skill  of  the  surgeons  must  have  a 
marked  influence.  "When  you  add  to  this  the  power 
of  preventing  or  palliating  the  diseases  which  carry 
off  the  other  three  quarters,  you  make  a  sum  which 
ought  to  dwindle  down  to  the  faintest  line  any 
claims  of  any  persons,  even  for  meritorious  services 
to  be  rewarded!  How  much  smaller  the  claims  of 
those  who  ask  high  places  as  a  reward  for  longevity, 
and  for  keeping  their  precious  bodies  out  of  harm's 
way  so  long  !  The  case  needs  only  to  be  stated,  to 
be  decided  in  your  favor ;  if  you  will  only  keep 
personal  quarrels  out  of  it. 

N.  B.  —  Of  course,  you  have  figured  out  the  im 
portance  of  the  allotment  system?1     500,000  men 

1  The  allusion  is  to  a  plan  for  securing  from  the  volunteers  "  allot- 


THE  SANITARY  COMMISSION  273 

get  per  month  $6,600,000  wages,  of  which  one 
half,  $3,300,000,  is  a  large  allowance  for  necessary 
expenses  of  men  well  clothed,  and  fed,  and  doc 
tored  by  government  ?  Whether  the  other  half  shall 
go  to  frolicking  or  be  used  to  prevent  pauperism  of 
the  soldiers'  families,  is  a  great  question  !  If  you 
have  any  spare  time,  I  hope  you  will  give  some  help 
to  the  perfecting  and  passing  of  the  bill  for  secur 
ing  the  payment  of  the  allotments  at  the  expense 
and  risk  of  the  United  States. 

All  hands,  sanitary  inspectors,  chaplains,  sur 
geons,  and  all  decent  army  officers,  should  use  their 
influence  with  the  men  to  further  the  allotment. 

The  following  letter  to  Mr.  Olmsted  refers  to 
army  sanitary  reform  :  — 

J.  M.  FORBES  TO  FREDERICK  LAW  OLMSTED. 

BOSTON,  December  23,  1861. 

MY  DEAR  Sm,  —  I  have  not  seen  your  bill. 
Would  not  this  be  a  good  time  to  provide  in  it  for 
a  statistical  report  upon  the  sanitary  condition  of 
the  army  —  frequent  enough  to  be  of  use  for  this 
war,  as  well  as  for  future  times?  With  a  proper 
system,  and  one  or  two  clerks  at  headquarters,  the 
reports  of  sanitary  measures  of  prevention,  of  medi 
cal  and  surgical  cases,  of  deaths,  etc.,  might  be 
tabulated  on  a  certain  day  in  each  month,  and  while 
laying  the  foundation  for  future  statistics,  would  be 

ments  "  of  their  pay  for  the  benefit  of  their  families.  A  law  provid 
ing  for  this  was  enacted  on  December  24,  1861.  —  ED. 


274  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

a  great  check  upon  the  regimental  surgeons,  and 
help  reform  many  immediate  abuses.  It  would  also 
give  the  surgeons  a  chance  to  make  suggestions, 
independently  of  their  colonels.  For  instance,  I 
hear  of  a  surgeon  saying,  "  I  wanted  the  colonel  to 
order  so  and  so  done  as  necessary  or  valuable  for 
health,"  but  the  colonel  does  not  think  it  "  worth 
while  to  harass  the  men,"  etc.  A  well-organized 
medical  board  ought  to  have  influence  enough  to 
procure  general  orders  for  any  measures  of  clear 
sanitary  reform,  if  they  only  have  the  disposition, 
and  can  insist  upon  certain  detailed  reports  for  each 
regiment  at  fixed  times.  Truly  yours, 

J.  M.  FORBES. 


CHAPTER  XI 

FINANCE    IN   WAR   TIME 

ANOTHER  call  for  exertion  and  for  frequent  jour 
neys  to  Washington  now  came,  owing  to  the  ex 
tremely  crude  ideas  of  finance  that  existed  among 
the  legislators  there.  My  father  writes  in  his 
notes :  — 

"  During  the  summer  of  1861,  an  extra  session 
of  Congress  had  been  sitting,  and  measures  of  the 
utmost  consequence  were  discussed  and  passed, 
including  financial  ones.  .  .  .  Our  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury,  S.  P.  Chase,  was  a  good  lawyer,  full  of 
patriotism  and  brains,  but  with  no  practice  as  a 
financier,  and  it  took  all  the  influence  we  could 
bring  to  bear  from  New  York  and  the  other  busi 
ness  centres  to  hold  him  back  in  the  use  of  paper 
money,  which  was  his  easiest  but  most  dangerous 
resource.  We  fought  hardest  on  his  first  plan  of 
issuing  fifty  millions  of  greenbacks,  which  were 
made  ( legal  tenders/  unnecessarily  as  we  thought 
at  the  time,  and  as  I  think  now.  Our  idea  was  that 
paper  money  should  be  held  as  a  last  resort,  and 
then  should  be  issued  as  treasury  notes  and  offered 
as  a  temporary  payment  to  our  creditors  who  chose 
to  take  them,  instead  of  which  Mr.  Chase  forced 


276  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

their  circulation  by  making  them  a  legal  tender  for 
all  debts.1 

"Mr.  William  Gray2  was  the  boldest  and  best 
coadjutor  I  found  in  this  contest.  The  first  issue 
was  only  fifty  millions,  but  when  I  had  fought  it  at 
Washington  to  the  bitter  end,  and  it  passed  into 
law,  I  could  only  express  myself  by  a  telegram,  say 
ing,  '  We  are  beaten,  and  the  best  speculation  now 
would  be  to  buy  a  paper-mill,  which  must  now  take 
the  functions  of  a  gold  mine.' 

"  Issue  after  issue  followed,  and  the  best  we  could 
do  was,  when  the  bond  question  came  up,  to  get 
provision  made  in  the  bill  for  paying  interest  in 
gold,  which  alone  saved  our  finances.  As  it  was, 
paper  ran  down  from  bad  to  worse,  so  that  at  one 
time  the  gold  dollar  was  worth  $2.80  in  paper,  and 
three  years  treasury  notes  were  sold  bearing  $7.30 
interest  per  annum,  it  being  fixed  at  this  rate  for  the 
convenience  of  computing  at  exactly  two  cents  per 
day  for  the  three  hundred  and  sixty-five  days  of  the 

1  Compare  Mr.  Chase's  changed  views,  when  in  the  case  of  Hep 
burn  v.  Griswold,  8  Wallace's  U.  S.  Reports,  p.  603,  in  1870,  as  chief 
justice  of  the  United  States,  he  declared  all  the  legal  tender  legis 
lation  not  only  unconstitutional,  but  also  economically  and  practically 
a  mistake.  —  ED. 

2  Mr.  Gray's  daughter  writes  of  one  of  these  trips  to  Washing 
ton  :  "  Those  days,  with  all  the  pressing  questions  about  the  financial 
policy  of  the  government,  are  as  clear  and  vivid  in  my  mind  to-day 
as  they  were  then,  and  I  always  associate  your  father  and  mine  in 
the  remembrance.     I  went  with  them  both  to  Washington  once,  in 
the  time  before  sleeping-cars  were  invented,  and  I  remember  how 
they  talked  all  night  and  I  listened,  sitting  up  in  a  common  car  all 
the  way.     It  took  us  twenty-four  hours  to  get  to  Washington  then,  I 
believe." 


FINANCE  IN  WAR  TIME  277 

year,  which  was  a  certain  help  towards  making  it  a 
popular  loan,  as  the  $7.30  formed  a  very  simple  sav 
ings  bank  for  any  body  who  could  save  up  a  hundred 
dollars." 

Mr.  Fessenden  was  then  chairman  of  the  Ways 
and  Means  Committee  of  the  Senate,  and  to  him  my 
father  wrote  in  a  tone  which  shows  his  extreme 
uneasiness  at  the  turn  affairs  were  taking  :  — 

J.   M.   FORBES  TO   WILLIAM    P.   FESSENDEN. 

NEW  YORK,  January  13,  1862. 

MY  DEAR  SIR,  —  I  see  that  the  financial  question 
is  pressing,  and  before  I  turn  my  face  eastward  I 
cannot  help  repeating  some  of  the  suggestions  which 
I  have  already  made,  the  soundness  of  which  is 
chiefly  the  discussion  here,  where  so  many  are 
opposed  to  them. 

1st.  Taxation  for  interest  and  current  ordinary 
expenses ;  on  this  all  agree  now,  but  many  will 
oppose  if  you  once  get  into  the  "irredeemable 
gulf." 

2d.  Your  main  reliance  for  carrying  on  the  gov 
ernment  must  be  upon  selling  your  long  bonds  at 
the  best  prices  they  will  bring  after  a  fixed  policy 
has  been  announced,  and  of  course  using  proper 
judgment  as  to  the  time  and  manner  of  bringing 
them  forward. 

3d.  Avail  of  short  loans,  exchequer  bills,  or  emis 
sion  of  small  notes  for  currency,  under  the  advice 
of  experts  in  whichever  manner  or  form  promises  to 
give  greatest  relief  temporarily;  but  it  will  be  a 


278  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

fatal  error  to  rely  upon  it  as  your  chief  dependence. 
It  is  limited  in  amount  and  liable  to  great  mischief 
the  moment  it  is  pushed  beyond  a  certain  and  very 
moderate  amount. 

4th.  Make  this  currency,  or  short  paper,  or  de 
mand  paper,  in  whatever  shape  you  put  it,  as  good 
as  possible  by  providing  for  its  being  received  by 
government  for  all  dues,  by  fixing  a  mode  of  its 
redemption,  and  by  making  it  fundable  at  a  good 
rate  of  interest.  Kaise  it  all  you  can,  so  as  to  make 
it  good,  and  cause  it  to  be  received  by  all  classes 
voluntarily  in  payment  of  debts  already  existing, 
but  avoid  making  it  a  legal  tender  unless  you  want 
to  see  it  depreciate.  To  make  it  a  legal  tender  will 
be  to  give  notice  to  capitalists  to  get  their  capital 
out  of  the  country  as  fast  as  possible,  and  to  foreign 
capitalists  to  keep  from  sending  money  here,  and  to 
sacrifice  what  available  stocks  they  have,  govern 
ment  included,  as  early  as  possible  before  the  depre 
ciation  has  got  very  bad. 

5th.  Finally,  avoid  pledging  anything  but  the 
faith  of  the  government  for  your  debt. 

It  will  be  urged  to  pledge  your  revenues,  or  cer 
tain  specified  parts  of  them.  If  this  pledge  covers 
all  your  issues,  past,  present,  and  future,  it  amounts 
to  nothing.  If  confined  to  the  present  debt  and  to 
certain  specified  loans  it  will  be  urged  upon  you  by 
those  who  hold  the  present  loan  and  wish  it  secured, 
and  who  wish  to  see  the  war  ended,  even  at  the  cost 
of  disunion  or  submission,  whenever  the  loan  now 
authorized  is  expended. 


FINANCE  IN  WAR  TIME  279 

If  our  policy  is  to  be  war  until  we  succeed, 
whether  it  cost  us  five  hundred  millions  or  five 
thousand  millions  (about  England's  debt),  let  us 
have  no  pledge  of  our  revenue.  Even  if  the  loan 
was  sure  to  be  limited,  it  would  be  unworthy  the 
dignity  of  government  to  pawn  our  revenue  for  it, 
like  a  Mexican  or  South  American  state,  and  would 
defeat  its  object  if  that  object  really  was  to  raise 
the  public  credit. 

We  are  rich  and  strong,  and  it  only  requires 
strong  action  and  wise  measures  of  finance  at  this 
crisis  to  carry  us  through. 

Most  respectfully  and  truly  yours, 

J.  M.  FORBES. 

I  fear  the  interest  of  the  banks  in  keeping  up 
for  a  little  while  the  price  of  the  long  bonds  (1881) 
may  influence  them  to  other  and  temporary  expe 
dients.  If  you  follow  their  advice  you  will  soon  see 
them  slipping  out  of  their  long  bonds  at  the  best 
prices  they  can  get. 

If  one  doubted  about  the  true  policy,  the  opposi 
tion  to  it  of  the  "  Herald,"  the  organ  of  the  seced- 
ers,  should  turn  the  scales.  It  goes  for  irredeemable 
currency  and  for  short  expedients.  It  wants  to  see 
the  war  short  —  and  disgraceful !  J.  M.  F. 

J.   M.   FOKBES  TO   WILLIAM   P.   FESSENDEN. 

WILLARD'S  HOTEL,  WASHINGTON, 
February  13,  1862. 

Mr.  Gray  has  gone  home  not  very  well  and  rather 
discouraged.  I  gave  him  your  message.  .  .  . 


280  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

Suppose  the  stain  of  bad  faith  hurts  the  eight 
hundred  and  fifty  millions  of  bonds  five  per  cent,  by 
discrediting  it  at  home,  and  keeping  out  of  our  reach 
the  great  reservoirs  of  European  capital  (which  in 
my  opinion  is  a  very  small  estimate  of  the  pecuni 
ary  damage),  the  nation  loses  by  the  operation  five 
per  cent,  on  eight  hundred  and  fifty  millions,  say 
$42,500,000. 

But  this  low  and  mean  view  of  the  case  only  dis 
closes  a  small  part  of  its  mischief.  We  shall  have 
the  stain  and  irritation  of  repudiation  of  the  many 
millions  due  to  foreigners  which  we  promised  in 
specie  and  are  to  pay  in  paper,  and  if  we  are  not 
successful  during  the  few  weeks  for  which  time  we 
purchase  ease  by  this  expedient,  we  may  in  conse 
quence  of  it  find  such  obstacles  to  our  next  financial 
move  (beyond  the  one  hundred  and  fifty  millions) 
that  the  legal  tender  clause  may  terminate  the  war, 
a  consummation  which  some  of  the  bankers  and 
others  advocating  it  will  not  weep  for  ! 

I  must  say  I  shall  consider  it  our  financial  Bull 
Eun. 

With  our  strong  constitution  we  may  get  over 
this  astounding  quackery,  but  it  is  a  trial  I  hope  we 
may  be  spared. 

On  the  other  hand  with  Napoleon  holding  back 
from  interference,  with  England  reacting  in  our 
favor,  with  the  navy  pushing  the  war  into  the  in 
terior,  and  with  Stanton  waking  up  the  army,  and 
putting  out  a  declaration  of  Independence  of  the 
Satanic  Press,  it  only  needs  good  Anglo-Saxon 


FINANCE  IN  WAK  TIME  281 

pluck  in  this  the  very  pinch  of  the  game  of  finance, 
to  put  us  on  firm  ground. 

The  Senate  bill,  with  the  legal  tender  struck  out, 
and  with  a  good  tax  bill,  will  do  this  as  surely  as 
there  is  a  sun  in  heaven. 

I  hope  to  get  off  this  afternoon,  having  done  my 
best  against  the  monsters. 

I  have  given  almost  at  full  length  my  father's 
financial  arguments,  addressed  to  Mr.  Fessenden, 
against  "  paper  money ; "  and  so  I  confine  the  fol 
lowing  extracts  from  letters  to  the  editor  of  the 
New  York  "Evening  Post,"  to  an  argument  in 
favor  of  adhering  to  a  sound  currency,  not  urged 
in  his  letters  to  the  chairman  of  the  Finance  Com 
mittee  in  the  Senate.  Of  Senator  Fessenden  in  this 
capacity,  Mr.  Sumner  said  that  he  was,  in  the  region 
of  finance,  what  our  best  generals  were  in  the  field. 

J.   M.    FORBES   TO   WILLIAM   CULLEN   BRYANT. 

BOSTON,  January  22,  1862. 

...  I  have  not  seen  set  forth  so  distinctly  as 
it  deserves  the  point  that  while  speculators,  and 
gamblers,  and  indeed  shrewd  men  in  active  busi 
ness  can  take  care  of  themselves,  no  matter  how 
vicious  the  currency  tinkering  may  be,  it  is  the 
women  and  minors,  the  helpless  and  the  poor  gen 
erally,  upon  whom  a  vicious  currency  and  its  conse 
quences  are  sure  to  fall  hardest.  The  savings 
banks  represent  the  accumulations  of  the  poor,  and 
the  effect  on  them  ought  to  be  strongly  painted ; 


282          JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

but  in  point  of  fact  the  savings  in  the  hands  of  the 
people  are  larger  than  those  in  the  banks,  and  these 
belong  to  a  still  poorer  class,  who  do  not  accumu 
late  enough  to  make  deposits,  or  who  have  not  the 
habits  of  thrift  of  the  savings  bank  depositors. 
Upon  this  poorer  class  the  loss  is  going  to  be  still 
sharper.  .  .  . 

THE   SAME  TO   THE   SAME. 

BOSTON,  January  27, 1862. 

I  have  your  note.  I  knew  you  always  as  the 
champion  of  sound  finance.  Your  article  sets  forth 
the  effect  on  the  poor ;  others  have  been  solely  look 
ing  to  its  injury  to  the  rich.  ...  In  great  haste, 
yours  truly. 

I  find  my  father,  during  this  winter  of  1861-62, 
with  more  irons  in  the  fire  than  one  would  have 
thought  it  possible  for  any  one  man  to  keep  there ; 
again  stirring  up  his  friend  Mr.  Sedgwick  (who 
was  now  on  a  naval  investigation  committee  of  Con 
gress)  to  check  the  corruption  and  abuses  of  the 
navy  yards ;  applauding  Stanton  for  his  Declaration 
of  Independence  of  the  Satanic  Press;  and  still 
urging  the  throwing  out  of  the  Legal  Tender  bill. 
But  as  to  this  it  is  clear  he  begins  to  see  that  the 
inflationists  are  getting  their  own  way,  for  he  says 
in  a  letter  to  Mr.  Bryant :  — 

"  I  am  glad  to  see  the  bill  still  hangs,  but  suppose 
it  will  go.  The  interest  in  coin,  and  above  all  the 
removal  of  the  restriction  as  to  selling  bonds  at  par, 


FINANCE  IN  WAR  TIME  283 

will,  if  insisted  on,  do  much  to  modify  it,  but,  after 
all,  it  will  be  like  a  merchant  suspending  payment 
in  a  panic,  and  behaving  decently  thereafter.  His 
assets  will  be  depreciated,  and  his  credit  suffer,  but 
after  a  while  he  may  by  prudence  recover  position." 

There  is  also  a  letter  from  him  to  Mr.  Fessenden, 
discussing  different  ways  of  raising  revenue,  of 
which  I  quote  a  part :  — 

"  There  seems  much  force  in  the  suggestion  made 
in  a  communication  to  the  (  Evening  Post '  of  Jan 
uary  21,  that  an  income  tax,  being  a  ( direct  tax/ 
can,  under  the  Constitution,  only  be  levied  upon  the 
citizens  of  each  State  in  proportion  to  the  basis  of 
representation,  and  consequently  will  amount  to 
very  little.  Indeed,  if  this  legal  objection  be  sound, 
the  tax  becomes  impracticable.1 

"  But  we  must  reach  the  rich,  and  especially  that 
large  class  who  hoard  more  of  their  income  than  they 
spend,  for  they  do  not  pay  anything  near  their  share 
of  indirect  taxes  upon  importations  or  excise.  We 
cannot  reach  them  through  their  tobacco  or  whiskey 
or  wines,  or  broadcloth  or  silks.  A  stamp  tax  is  one 
obvious  mode  of  reaching  them.  Every  receipt  they 
give  for  their  semi-annual  interest,  or  for  the  prin 
cipal  when  paid  them,  may  thus  be  taxed.  Every 
fire  or  marine  policy ;  every  rent  bill  they  render  or 

1  An  income  tax  law  was  passed,  however,  at  this  time  and  in 
1864  ;  and  its  constitutionality  was  upheld  in  the  case  of  Springer  v. 
U.  S.,  102  U.  S.  Rep.  586,  in  1880.  But  afterwards,  in  1895,  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  reversed  its  former  decisions, 
and  laid  down  the  doctrine  which  is  here  referred  to  by  Mr.  Forbes. 
—  ED. 


284  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

lease  they  grant,  or  contract  for  sale  or  lease  of 
property ;  every  settlement  in  probate ;  every  invest 
ment  they  have  in  railways  or  canals  may  be  thus 
taxed  through  the  sources  of  income. 

"  Even  if  there  were  no  doubt  as  to  the  income 
tax  being  a  direct  tax,  and  thus  objectionable,  the 
arguments  would  be  very  strong  for  tapping  the 
sources  of  income  rather  than  the  income  itself. 
For  there  are  a  thousand  ways  in  which  income, 
once  in  the  hands  of  individuals,  will  evade  tax 
ation.  We  must  therefore  seize  it  in  the  hands  of 
corporations  if  possible,  before  it  reaches  the  indi 
vidual." 

Another  to  the  same  correspondent  opposes  ve 
hemently  the  agitation  which  had  sprung  up  under 
the  irritation  caused  by  the  Mason  and  Slidell  inci 
dent,  for  prohibiting  the  export  of  specie,  a  proposal 
which  he  characterizes  as  "  suicidal  and  barbarous," 
and  "  worthy  of  the  political  economy  of  old  Spain 
or  her  colonies." 

These  and  many  other  letters  of  great  interest  in 
their  day  I  have  been  prevented  from  giving  at 
length  for  lack  of  space,  or  have  omitted  altogether, 
and  I  only  give  the  following,  to  the  New  York 
"  Evening  Post,"  because  it  is  so  short,  and  shows 
so  clearly  the  deadly  earnestness  with  which  my 
father  was  helping  to  fight  what  he  now  felt  to  be  a 
life  or  death  battle  for  the  Union :  — 


FINANCE  IN  WAR  TIME  285 

WHAT    HAS    BECOME    OF   THE    CONVICTED    SLAVE 
CAPTAIN  ? 1 

Is  he,  like  the  rattlesnake  in  camp,  and  the  crowd 
of  detected  spies  in  Washington,  to  have  the  oath 
put  to  him,  and  to  be  released  ? 2  or  to  be  sentenced 
to  imprisonment  till  sympathizing  political  friends 
ask  his  pardon  ?  The  great  want  of  the  hour  is  to 
see  one  spy  —  the  higher  his  social  position  the 
better  —  hanged,  and  thus  begin  to  protect  the  lives 
of  our  soldiers  from  these  secret  enemies.  But  if 
this  wish  of  the  nation  must  not  be  gratified,  can 
not  we  at  least  hang  one  of  the  pirates  who  have 
sacrificed  such  hecatombs  of  Africans  ?  and  thus  hint 
to  the  civilized  world  that  there  has  been  a  change 
of  administration  since  slavers  were  protected, 
England  bullied,  and  Cuba  plotted  against  in  the 
interest  of  slaveholders ! 

The  English  government  may  continue  to  ignore 

1  Captain  N.  P.  Gordon,  of  the  slaver  Erie.     He  was  afterwards 
executed  at  New  York,  in  February,  1862.      (4  Reb.  Record,  Diary, 
37.)     Knowing  the  President's  tenderness  of  heart,  and  believing  it 
very  important   to   make   an  example  of   this  criminal,  my  father 
visited  Washington  with  Henry  Ward  Beecher  and  Dr.  Bellows,  to 
urge  upon  Mr.  Lincoln  the  course  which  was  finally  taken.  —  ED. 

2  The  reference  is  to  a  story  of  the  period  which  has  recently 
been  given  in  the  newspapers  in  the  following  form  :  — 

"  There  had  been  a  good  deal  of  bushwhacking  along  the  Virginia 
border,  and  it  was  thought  that  some  of  this  was  done  by  men  who 
professed  to  be  loyal.  The  Union  troops  naturally  felt  rather  sore 
about  it.  On  one  occasion  a  private  soldier  called  out :  *  Sergeant, 
I  have  caught  a  copperhead,  a  real  snake  this  time  ;  what  shall  I  do 
with  him  ?  '  '  Oh,'  said  the  sergeant,  « d — n  it,  I  suppose  the  only 
thing  you  can  do  is  to  swear  him  and  let  him  go.' " 


286  JOHN"  MURRAY  FORBES 

this  change,  and  to  visit  upon  us  the  sins  of  our 
Southern  rulers,  as  they  have  heretofore  done ;  but 
we  might  as  well  begin  to  enlighten  their  people,  if 
in  earnest.  JUSTICE. 

The  next  five  letters  speak  for  themselves,  and 
with  sufficient  vigor,  on  the  topics  of  the  hour :  — 

J.   M.   FORBES  TO  W.  H.   ASPINWALL. 

BOSTON,  January  21,  1862. 

MY  DEAR  MR.  ASPINWALL,  —  Some  of  our  infer 
nally  weak-backed  bank  men  as  soon  as  they  had 
got  back  here  went  to  overturning  all  the  work  they 
had  done  (under  Gray's  inspiration)  in  Washington, 
telegraphing  in  favor  of  the  hundred  millions  legal 
tender.  Many  of  the  House  committee  were  in 
favor  of  it  before,  Chase  only  half  fixed  in  its  favor, 
the  horde  of  contractors,  speculators,  and  debtors, 
headed  by  your  Satanic  "  Herald,"  pressed  for  it.  It 
is  my  conviction  that  the  Senate  committee  is  the 
chief  safeguard  against  its  being  passed,  and  they 
cannot  stand  alone.  You  must  back  them  up  by 
private  letters  and  public  opinion  !  Here  our  bank 
ers  are  troubled  by  the  demand  notes,  and,  not  con 
tent  with  having  them  made  practically  good  by 
their  restriction,  want  them  made  a  legal  tender 
under  the  delusion  that  this  will  make  them  better  ! 
Once  abandon  the  sound  principle,  and  the  pressure 
will  soon  sink  the  restriction. 

Cannot  you  rally  the  "  Evening  Post "  and  some 
other  sound  papers  and  get  them  to  stand  by  their 


FINANCE  IN  WAR  TIME  287 

guns?  I  still  wish  you  and  Mr.  Minturn  and  Green 
felt  like  going  to  Washington.  It  looks  as  if  all  our 
labor  is  likely  to  be  thrown  away  unless  some  more 
is  put  in. 

Truly  yours  in  haste,  J.  M.  FORBES. 

J.   M.    FORBES   TO  N.   M.   BECKWITH,   PARIS. 

BOSTON,  January  24,  1862. 

.  .  .  Barren  proclamations  to  those  beyond  our 
reach  will  just  now  hurt  Kentucky  and  the  Northern 
harmony  more  than  it  will  help  the  cause ;  treating 
slaves  well  that  we  do  reach  is  the  best  preparation, 
and  best  proclamation  to  others.  I  saw  in  New 
York  one  of  the  blacks  (yellow),  [who  was]  carried 
off  and  sold  from  the  Star  of  the  West  when  cap 
tured.  He  said  the  slaves  knew  in  the  most  distant 
plantations  how  we  used  those  who  came  to  us,  and 
that  much  stress  was  laid  upon  the  return  by  our 
soldiers  of  a  few  fugitives !  He  says  intelligence 
runs  fast  through  the  plantations,  and  he  thinks  a 
proclamation  of  freedom,  following  up  well-attested 
good  faith  to  those  who  had  come  in,  would  have 
great  effect.  In  the  same  "  Post "  you  will  find  an 
editorial  upon  the  sinews  of  war :  containing  much 
good  financial  doctrine. 

We  were  just  going  over  the  dam  into  an  irre 
deemable  currency  about  a  week  ago,  when  a  few  of 
us  made  a  rally  for  the  doctrines  of  that  editorial ! 
and  we  saved  it  for  the  time,  brought  Chase  over 
half  way,  where  he  would  by  the  logic  of  events  have 
been  soon  forced  to  come  all  right,  but  the  horde 


288  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

of  debtors,  and  gamblers,  and  fools,  with  the  "  Her 
ald  "  at  their  head,  are  at  it  again,  and  the  result  is 
still  doubtful.  With  such  leaders,  what  but  a  sturdy 
Anglo-Saxon  people,  or  a  miracle-dealing  God,  can 
save  us  from  destruction !  If  we  survive  the  mili 
tary  and  diplomatic  and  financial  blunders,  it  will 
be  because  we  are  the  strongest  people  and  have 
the  strongest  government  on  the  face  of  the  earth  ! 
I  was  in  New  York  last  week  seeing  Will  off  to 
the  war,  —  to  Beaufort  with  his  regiment,  the  First 
Massachusetts  Cavalry ;  a  hard  trial  for  his  mother 
—  but  we  must  do  our  share,  and  if  he  goes  to  the 
Spirit  Land,  we  may  not  be  long  behind.  .  .  . 

J.    M.    FORBES   TO   JOHN   H.   CLIFFORD.1 

NEW  YORK  CARS,  January  27,  1862. 

MY  DEAR  CLIFFORD,  —  I  am  going  on  to  Wash 
ington  by  "  telegraph,"  and  may  stay  a  few  days. 
You  once  gave  me  a  line  to  Secretary  Stanton,  but  I 
could  not  find  him,  after  several  calls,  he  being  in 
court.  I  wish  you  would  give  me  such  a  letter  to 
him  as  will  convince  him  that  I  do  not  come  on  to 
steal  anything  from  Uncle  Sam.  In  fact  my  object 
is  quite  the  reverse  —  viz.  :  to  help  fight  the  "  legal 
tender "  mongrel,  a  cross  between  a  folly  and  a 
fraud  !  I  may  also  want  to  talk  coast  defense  with 
him. 

I  have  a  line  to  him  from  the  governor,  but  I  also 
want  one  from  you,  to  let  him  know  I  am  no  self- 
seeker,  nor  office-seeker,  nor  politician  ! 

1  Formerly  governor  of  Massachusetts,  and  a  leading  member  of 
the  bar  in  that  State.  —  ED. 


FINANCE  IN  WAR  TIME  289 

Thanks  to  your  suggestions,  I  gave  the  joint  Com 
mittee  on  Federal  Relations  a  good  screed  of  doctrine, 
and  now  hope  they  will  act  promptly. 

Very  truly  yours,  J.  M.  FORBES. 

J.  M.  FORBES  TO  GEORGE  RIPLEY,  OF  THE  NEW  YORK 
TRIBUNE. 

BOSTON,  February  17,  1862. 

MY  DEAR  SIR,  —  I  address  you  not  for  publica 
tion,  but  in  the  hope  of  influencing  the  "  Tribune  " 
for  the  good  which  I  know  you  and  it  aim  at. 

I  regret  your  continued  onslaughts  upon  Gideon 
Welles.  If  they  succeed,  you  will  be  sure  to  have 
some  wretched  political  hunker  in  his  place,  and  to 
drive  out  Fox,  the  best  executive  secretary  of  the 
navy  we  ever  had ;  better  where  he  is  than  if  head 
secretary,  with  politics  too  to  manage ! 

As  to  the  M.  matter  I  can  speak  from  know 
ledge  and  experience.  I  was  employed  in  Boston, 
as  he  was  in  New  York,  minus  the  commissions.  I 
corresponded  and  conferred  with  him ;  I  know  the 
difficulties  he  had  to  encounter,  by  experience.  I 
say,  after  full  reflection,  that  his  work  was,  without 
being  perfect,  the  best  done  of  any  that  the  govern 
ment  have  yet  done,  always  excepting  Stanton's 
slaying  of  the  Satanic  !  As  compared  with  buying 
through  a  naval  officer,  I  have  no  sort  of  question 
that  M.  saved  five  or  ten  times  his  commission. 
There  is  no  sort  of  question,  either,  that  the  commis 
sion  was  too  high,  and  that  Gideon  blundered !  and 
that  M.  deserves  some  scorching  for  not  disgorging 


290  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

the  surplus  or  the  whole ;  but  still,  as  a  whole,  the 
thing  which  might  have  been  better  done  was  well 
done :  to  blame  it  too  severely  is  a  premium  upon 
routine. 

Had  Welles  spent  twenty-five  per  cent.,  or  about 
a  million,  more,  through  the  regular  channels,  he 
would  have  been  all  right.  Take  care,  or  you  will 
drive  him  out  on  this  issue,  and  have  harpies  and 
do-nothings  in  the  place  of  an  honest  old  man  and 
of  efficient  Fox. 

Fox  was  too  good  for  the  old  navy,  and  was  suc 
cessfully  transferred  to  the  head  of  a  large  manu 
facturing  company.  He  projected  the  reinforce 
ment  of  Sumter  when  it  could  have  been  done,  in 
the  winter,  undertook  it  when  desperate,  in  April, 
and  thus  precipitated  the  glorious  rising.  He 
put  younger  men  at  the  head  of  our  expeditions, 
which  have  saved  the  country,  and  will  save  it  if 
salvation  be  possible.  He  has  the  old-fogyism  of 
the  navy  to  fight,  and  yet  has  done  much  where 
more  remains  to  do.  Let  him  not  have  to  fight  the 
fire  in  the  rear,  of  the  head  of  the  liberal  party,  the 
"  Tribune." 

Pray  note  :  I  don't  say  M.'s  work  was  perfect, 
nor  he  blameless  of  greed,  but  that  you  may  lead  to 
a  worse  evil  by  pushing  Welles  further ! 

Truly  yours,  J.  M.  FORBES. 

I  pray  you  not  to  embalm  my  name  in  print. 


FINANCE  IN  WAR  TIME  291 

J.   M.    FORBES  TO  WILLIAM   CULLEN  BRYANT. 

BOSTON,  February  27,  1862. 

MY  DEAR  SIR,  —  I  think  you  are  wrong  in  oppos 
ing  the  new  order  of  Stanton  as  to  telegrams.  I 
have  had  much  experience  with  the  telegraph  as  a 
business  engine,  and  I  know  what  it  must  be  in 
war.  The  weakest  and  most  discouraging  point  in 
our  war  management  up  to  this  time  has  been  the 
looseness  with  which  the  telegraph  has  been  left 
open  :  and  Stanton's  move  to  control  it  seems  to  me 
one  of  the  best  things  he  has  done.  I  only  hope  he 
will  have  a  sharp  censor  or  superintendent,  and  do 
the  thing  thoroughly.  I  urged  this  measure  very 
strongly  in  the  spring,  and  was  disgusted  at  the 
apathy  of  the  higher  powers.  For  with  Baltimore 
and  Washington  and  the  public  offices  ever  full  of 
traitors,  the  free  use  of  the  telegraph  seemed  to  me 
to  put  Washington  in  the  power  of  the  enemy. 

The  telegraph  is  a  mighty  engine  of  war,  and,  if 
used  up  to  its  capacity,  is  enough  to  turn  the  scale. 

Upon  our  single  track  railroads  we  find  that  the 
erection  of  a  telegraph  is  worth  to  us  more  than  a 
double  track  would  be  without  the  wires.  It  in 
creases  the  availability  of  our  engines,  cars,  and  men 
enormously,  besides  the  value  for  safety.  I  mention 
this  as  an  illustration  of  what  good  it  may  do  to  the 
army  if  put  under  sharp  systematic  management; 
and  beyond  all,  how  dangerous,  if  the  enemy  are 
permitted  to  share  its  use  and  our  secrets ! 

Very  truly  yours,  J.  M.  FORBES. 


CHAPTER  XII 

JOURNEY   TO    THE    SOUTH 

WORK  and  anxiety  had  to  be  lived  through  by 
all  good  citizens  during  that  winter  (1861-62) 
while  the  gigantic  machine,  which  afterwards  was 
surely  and  steadily  to  grind  up  the  "  peculiar  insti 
tution/'  and  prepare  the  way  for  what  became 
really,  and  not  only  nominally,  the  United  States, 
was  still  in  course  of  making  and  getting  into  gear. 
None  could  have  worked  harder  or  been  more  anx 
ious  than  the  subject  of  this  memoir.  The  navy 
continued  to  ask  his  help ;  and  how  much  was  asked 
of  him,  and  left  to  his  judgment,  may  be  seen  from 
such  a  letter  as  the  following :  — 

GIDEON  WELLES  TO   J.   M.   FOKBES. 

NAVY  DEPARTMENT,  20  January,  1862. 

SIR,  —  It  is  understood  that  one  of  the  iron  boats 
built  to  run  to  New  Orleans  is  ready  for  sea  at  Bos 
ton.  You  are  requested  and  authorized  to  charter 
this  vessel  on  the  most  favorable  terms,  for  three 
months  or  more,  to  go  in  pursuit  of  the  pirate 
Sumter.  Before  closing  the  arrangement,  however, 
telegraph  the  department  the  price  of  charter. 

The  government  will  furnish  a  lieutenant  com- 


JOURNEY  TO  THE  SOUTH  293 

manding  and  three  acting  masters,  guns  and  ammu 
nition,  —  all  else  to  be  provided  by  the  owners. 
You  can  authorize  such  preparations  to  the  vessel 
as  are  necessary  without  sending  her  to  the  navy 
yard. 

You  may  suggest  to  the  department  a  proper 
person  for  the  command  and  three  others  for  acting 
masters.  The  commander  can  probably  obtain  a 
good  crew  from  volunteers.  Let  the  owners  take 
all  but  the  war  risks,  and  have  a  favorable  proviso 
to  enable  government  to  take  the  vessel  at  any 
time. 

Answer  by  telegraph. 

When  will  the  other  boat  be  ready  ? 

I  am,  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

GIDEON  WELLES. 

A  succession  of  such  calls  could  not  fail  to  tell : 
my  father  was  now  nearly  fifty,  and  it  is  not  to  be 
wondered  at  that  his  chronic  enemy,  which  would 
have  killed  a  weaker  man  before  he  arrived  at  mid 
dle  age,  should  have  taken  advantage  of  its  op 
portunity.  Accordingly  I  find  him  writing  in  his 
notes  :  "  As  the  winter  dragged  on  I  was  attacked 
by  a  bad  cough,  and  ordered  to  go  South  for  a 
milder  climate."  By  this  time  my  brother  was  with 
his  regiment,  the  First  Massachusetts  Cavalry,  sta 
tioned  at  Beaufort,  South  Carolina,  which  had  been 
occupied  by  Federal  troops  since  the  Hilton  Head 
forts,  commanding  the  mouth  of  its  river,  had  yielded 
to  the  guns  of  the  fleet.  The  relations  between 


294  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

father  and  son  were  peculiarly  intimate,  each  heartily 
enjoying  the  other's  society  ;  "  as  glad  to  meet 
as  if  they  were  lovers/'  one  who  knew  them  well 
has  said.  To  Beaufort,  therefore,  the  father  now 
went,  in  search  of  the  prescribed  "  milder  climate," 
making  the  voyage  on  the  paddle-wheel  transport 
Atlantic,  then  commanded  by  his  friend,  Captain 
Eldridge.  The  letter  which  follows  was  addressed 
to  his  wife  :  — 

STEAMER  ATLANTIC,  &th  March,  1862. 
There  is  nothing  like  beginning  a  journal  early, 
so  I  take  it  up  where  Alice  will  have  left  me,  on  my 
way  to  the  ship.  Cousin  Sim1  would  n't  hear  of  my 
plan  of  ordering  a  carriage  for  me  and  my  baggage, 
but  would  have  a  wagon  for  the  trunks,  and  drive 
me  down.  So  I  dispatched  all  my  things,  bag  in 
cluded,  to  wait  for  me  at  the  Atlantic,  and  followed 
soon  after.  Arrived  there,  all  was  bustle  and  con 
fusion,  but  our  wagon  was  missing  !  —  gone  probably 
to  some  other  Atlantic  at  some  other  Canal  Street, 
existing  in  the  driver's  fertile  brain !  Mr.  Cary,  and 
William,  and  Sim,  and  little  Johnny,  and  William 
Kussell  all  started  in  different  directions,  while  I  kept 
guard  in  the  drizzling  northeaster  for  the  wagon. 
Baggage  and  miscellaneous  heaps  of  things  gradu 
ally  disappeared  into  the  maw  of  the  monster  ship, 
whose  wheels  were  turning  and  churning  up  the 
water  as  if  impatient  for  a  start.  Frantic  women, 
unprotected  females,  appealed  to  the  captain  and  to 
Mr.  E.  L.  Pierce  to  let  them  go  and  teach  young 

i  His  cousin,  Paul  Sieman  Forbes,  of  New  York. 


JOURNEY  TO  THE  SOUTH  295 

nigs  ;  others  in  despair  about  their  traps,  some  tear 
ful  at  parting,  the  collector  busy  as  a  bee  swearing 
in  the  passengers.  Finally  he  bundled  up  his  pa 
pers,  the  wharf  was  emptied,  and  the  ship  full.  The 
captain  mounted  the  paddle-box,  and  still  my  pre 
cious  trunks  came  not.  I  determined  to  leave  them 
and  trust  to  the  captain  and  Mr.  Heard  for  clothes, 
—  yet  lingered  on  the  ladder  to  the  last.  Imagine 
my  "  phelinks "  at  the  idea  of  not  having  even  a 
tooth-brush!  and  at  the  vision  of  what  Mary's  cake 
would  be  when  turned  out  of  my  trunk  a  fortnight 
hence  !  At  last  back  came  Mr.  Gary  with  the  wag 
oner  in  his  clutches,  who  protested  that  he  brought 
all  and  that  it  had  gone  on  board,  deep,  alas,  into 
that  bottomless  pit  of  a  baggage  hole,  now  full  to 
the  top.  Thankful  even  for  this  forlorn  hope,  I 
bade  our  friends  good-by,  and  took  refuge  in  the 
cabin,  where  Mr.  Heard's  things  were  snugly  stored 
in  our  little  state-room  !  I  leave  you  to  think  of 
the  anathemas  uttered  against  cousin  Sim,  against 
the  whole  race  of  wagoners,  and  above  all  against 
my  own  feeble-minded  self  for  trusting  any  of  them  ! 

Once  fairly  started  I  seized  the  head  porter  and 
insisted  on  having  my  trunks,  if  the  whole  had  to  be 
turned  out  of  their  stowage ;  then  by  going  down 
myself  I  luckily  managed  to  get  my  sea  things,  and 
so  that  adventure  ended  in  comedy ! 

Our  passengers  consist  chiefly  of  the  "  villain- 
tropic  "  society,  as  dear  little  Sarah's  friend,  the 
housekeeper  in  Miss  Edgeworth's  "  False  Keys," 
would  call  it ;  bearded  and  mustached  and  odd- 


296  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

looking  men,  with  odder-looking  women.  .  .  .  You 
would  have  doubted  whether  it  was  the  adjourn 
ment  of  a  John  Brown  meeting  or  the  fag  end  of 
a  broken-down  phalanstery !  Among  others  Mr. 
Mack  (Stillman's  father-in-law,  who  says  he  knew 
and  liked  William  H.),  Ned  Hooper  and  young 
Phillips  of  Will's  class,  and  Fred  Eustis  and  son ; 
an  officer  stationed  at  Beaufort,  Captain  Eliot,  son 
of  the  oculist,  introduced  to  me  by  or  through  the 
Shaws,  Tim  Walker's  sister,  whom  I  have  not  yet 
seen;  William  Bacon  and  young  Brooks,  a  scatter 
ing  naval  officer  or  two,  and  the  usual  quantum 
suff.  of  nondescripts  and  nonentities,  valued  doubt 
less  by  somebody,  but  offering  no  salient  points  to 
fix  the  eye. 

We  made  a  grand  show  at  dinner,  —  a  terrible 
waste  of  good  things  for  most  of  them,  and  then 
plunged  into  the  fog  and  drizzle  of  a  dirty  north 
easter,  which  doubtless  visited  you  in  snow,  and 
gave  you  some  twinges  at  having  let  me  go  !  Tea 
and  cards  in  the  evening.  Mr.  Heard  seasick,  and 
only  a  few  of  us  haunting  the  long  dining-room. 
A  fair  night's  sleep,  variegated  with  sore  throat 
and  some  coughing,  and  then  a  bright  morning 
with  a  westerly  gale  blowing.  Passengers  very 
scattering.  We  had  an  alarm  of  a  countess,  but 
neither  captain  nor  purser  know  of  her,  so  it  is 
doubtless  a  mistake,  unless,  like  a  wolf  in  sheep's 
clothing  she  had  smuggled  herself  into  Mr.  Pierce's 
troop  of  fifty  !  I  should  not  forget  to  tell  you 
of  Whist,  who  was  consigned  to  a  porter,  nor  of 


JOURNEY  TO  THE   SOUTH  297 

Billy,1  the  occupant  of  a  box  such  as  you  saw 
horses  hoisted  in.  As  he  was  much  exposed  to  wind 
I  luckily  found  an  old  sail  belonging  to  the  little 
boat  Mr.  Gary  sent  on  board  for  me,  and  went  and 
got  one  end  of  his  box  tented  in.  The  top  was 
already  covered,  so  he  seemed  pretty  well  provided 
for,  although  the  blanket  Luther  got  for  him  looked 
mighty  thin  and  cottony ! 

This  morning  after  breakfast  I  was  forward  by 
the  pilot-house,  watching  the  old  ship  pitch  into 
the  sea  and  the  gulls  following,  and  the  bright  sky 
and  blue  and  white  waves,  when  an  unlucky  billow 
took  us  at  the  wrong  time,  like  a  boxer  hitting  his 
adversary  when  down,  and  instantly  the  whole  deck 
below,  nine  feet  down,  was  full  of  water ;  and  even 
where  I  stood  it  came  ankle  deep,  and  even  found 
its  way,  a  little  of  it,  down  my  back  as  I  clutched 
at  a  rope  and  turned  to  avoid  it !  The  next  mo 
ment  I  looked  down  upon  poor  Billy.  His  box 
had  been  lifted  bodily,  turned  around,  and  the  iron 
anchor  stock  driven  through  it !  Billy  had  plunged 
forward  and  got  his  fore  feet  outside,  and  was 
struggling  violently  among  the  flukes  of  the  anchor 
to  keep  his  footing,  and  then,  with  the  intelligence 
of  a  pony,  tried  to  get  back  into  his  box  from  the 
slippery  deck,  —  his  box,  now  shared  with  the  anchor 
stock  and  generally  knocked  into  a  cocked  hat ! 
They  got  him  out  with  whole  legs,  and  he  is  now 
standing,  or  trying  to  stand,  on  the  deck,  while  the 

1  A  little  Naushon  island  horse,  taken  down  as  a  charger  for  Lieu 
tenant  W.  H.  F.      Whist  was  a  setter.  —  ED. 


298  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

carpenter  is  mending  his  box.  It  was  for  a  time  a 
bad  sight,  and,  the  water  being  still  surging  about 
below,  I  could  not  without  thorough  ducking  help 
him,  except  by  advice  and  consolation  offered 
through  the  singing  of  the  gale  ! 

So  I  have  brought  you  up  to  the  present  time. 
Alice  can  well  finish  the  picture,  if  she  remembers 
our  old  seat  near  the  captain's  end  of  the  table, 
where  I  am  sitting,  with  my  feet  on  the  warm  steam 
pipe  under  the  table  and  my  outer  man  guarded  by 
a  coat  stolen  from  Mr.  Heard  to  replace  my  wet 
one,  —  the  spray  still  dashing  against  the  saloon 
square  windows,  but  the  sea  going  down ;  and  now 
we  are  sure  of  good  weather  for  the  rest  of  our  trip. 

Four  p.  M.  Thursday,  March  6,  1862.  I  left  you 
day  before  yesterday,  well  posted  up  to  that  time. 
We  had  just  begun  to  feel  comfortable  when  an 
other  gale  sprang  up,  worse  than  the  first  and  right 
ahead,  —  lasting  ah1  day  yesterday  and  up  to  this 
morning,  when  it  was  again  smooth  and  sunny ;  but 
we  had  lost  our  chance  of  reaching  Port  Royal  in 
time  for  high  tide  on  the  bar.  At  noon  we  passed 
Fort  Sumter  and  Charleston  spires  in  the  distance, 
and  were  boarded  by  one  of  the  blockaders  for  news. 
It  is  now  blowing  half  a  gale  again,  and  we  have 
got  to  He  off  the  bar  all  night,  and  until  noon  to 
morrow,  making  a  four  days'  passage.  Yesterday 
I  had  nothing  to  tell  except  of  headache,  etc., 
which  made  me  too  miserable  to  read  or  write.  To 
day  I  am  about  well  again,  under  the  more  genial 
air,  though  still  coughing. 


JOURNEY  TO  THE  SOUTH  299 

We  expect  to  be  boarded  in  about  an  hour  by 
the  pilot-boat,  which  will  take  the  mail  ashore,  and 
I  make  up  my  package  for  the  chance  of  its  finding 
a  vessel  ready  there  to  go  homeward.  I  should  go 
ashore  myself,  but  that  I  should  there  be  all  adrift, 
and  might  be  exposed  to  catching  cold ;  so  with  my 
usual  prudence  I  hold  on.  .  .  . 

To-morrow  night  I  hope  to  see  Will;  and  now 
with  lots  of  love  to  the  children  and  to  all  who  love 
me,  I  am  as  ever, 

Yours,  J.  M.  F. 

P.  S.  —  Tell  Mack,  Billy  looks  all  right  after  his 
adventures,  though  rather  sleepy !  Whist,  too,  is 
bright.  Mr.  Heard,  as  I  see  more  of  him,  seems 
very  feeble.  I  hope  the  yacht  will  get  down,  so 
that  I  may  make  him  comfortable.  This  rough 
weather  looks  rather  formidable  for  her,  but  she 
may  hit  upon  a  smooth  time. 

On  arriving  off  Hilton  Head  my  father  took  to  a 
river  steamer,  and,  on  her  grounding  on  an  oyster 
bank,  to  the  little  sailboat  brought  with  him,  and 
after  some  small  adventures  arrived  at  Beaufort  at 
midnight,  "  in  the  sharp  stage  of  an  attack  of  bron 
chitis,  not  improved  by  the  Southern  night  air  of 
the  swampy  river,  and  barking  like  a  very  hoarse 
dog."  But  he  adds,  "  We  got  passed  through  the 
lines,  and  knocked  up  Lieutenant  W.  H.  F.  out  of 
his  sound  warm  nap,  and  soon  were  rejoicing  in  a 
cup  of  hot  coffee ;  and  before  long  I  was  resting  my 
weary  bones  on  his  bed.  He  had  no  more  idea  of 


300  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

seeing  me  when  my  voice  awoke  him  than  of  meet 
ing  the  angel  Gabriel." 

My  father  enjoyed  his  first  reveille  and  all  the 
camp  experience  which  followed.  Beaufort  was  on 
high  ground  overlooking  the  river.  Before  the  war 
it  had  been  the  Newport  of  South  Carolina,  and 
when  the  Hilton  Head  forts  were  threatened  by 
the  Federal  fleet  its  inhabitants  had  gone  down 
the  river  in  boats  to  see  it  pounded  and  driven 
off ;  and  when,  instead  of  this,  the  Union  flag  had 
promptly  gone  up  on  the  fort,  they  had  lost  no  time 
in  getting  off  from  Beaufort,  leaving  their  houses 
just  as  they  stood,  a  great  convenience  for  the  in 
coming  tenants.  These  tenants  in  the  first  instance 
were  the  soldiers,  and  through  the  military  com 
mandant  my  father  at  once  found  a  house  which 
quite  answered  his  purpose.  But  military  rule  was 
now  to  be  qualified  by  that  of  the  commissioners 
who  had  come  down  on  the  Atlantic,  authorized 
to  claim  all  abandoned  property  on  government 
account;  and  these,  consequently,  became  in  the 
eyes  of  the  army  and  their  hangers-on  "  the  most 
unpopular  set  of  Christians  ever  seen."  They  were 
nicknamed  "  Gideonites  "  by  the  military. 

Apropos  of  this  feeling,  my  father,  in  the  interest 
of  fair  play,  had  to  write  in  the  following  month  to 
Mr.  Sumner  in  Washington  :  — 

"  The  undercurrent  against  the  commission  here 
is  very  strong,  even  among  those  who  ought  to 
know  better.  First,  the  cotton  agents  think  their 
interests,  and  their  personal  use  of  negroes,  horses, 


JOURNEY  TO  THE  SOUTH  301 

and  houses,  hurt  thereby ;  then  the  sutlers,  and 
finally  the  military,  are  all  prejudiced,  especially  the 
subordinates  ;  the  lower  you  go  the  worse  the  feel 
ing,  the  generals  and  those  high  up  doing,  I  believe, 
all  they  can,  and  showing,  so  far  as  I  can  judge,  a 
good  spirit.  .  .  . 

"  I  don't  believe  in  having  two  sets  of  treasury 
agents  here  with  equal  and  sometimes  conflicting 
powers,  but  suppose  this  has  been  made  so  apparent 
that  Mr.  Chase  must  have  stopped  it  ere  this,  and 
put  Mr.  Pierce  distinctly  above  the  cotton  agents. 
.  .  .  He  is  here  with  enemies  all  around,  and  in  his 
own  association  weak  brothers  and  sisters,  —  his 
only  friend  being  the  general  commanding ;  and  if 
you  hear  criticisms  you  must,  and  of  course  would, 
always  make  allowances. 

"  I  think,  so  far  as  I  can  judge,  the  experiment 
must  be  practically  a  success ;  not  equal  to  the  ex 
pectations  of  sanguine  friends,  but  making  a  good 
beginning,  giving  most  valuable  data  for  other  quar 
ters  and  doing  great  positive  good  to  the  blacks 
here,  and  to  the  confidence  of  good  men  in  our 
power  to  make  the  blacks  useful." 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  commission  did  turn  out 
a  practical  success  and  a  "positive  good  to  the 
blacks ; "  as  any  one  can  learn  who  will  pay  a  visit  to 
their  descendants  on  the  Sea  Islands  at  the  present 
day.  In  the  same  letter  to  Mr.  Sumner,  my  father 
returns  to  the  negro  question  as  it  then  stood,  and 
adds : — 

"  There  is  one  thing  that  I  would  especially  urge 


302  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

upon  you  and  your  (our)  more  extreme  Republi 
cans:  while  struggling  for  the  whole,  why  neglect 
to  secure  half  a  loaf  when  you  can  get  it  ? 

"  In  the  present  stage  of  the  negro  question,  you 
cannot  for  months  to  come  get  the  emancipation  of 
all  rebel  slaves.  .  .  .  Meantime,  cannot  you  get  an 
almost  unanimous  recognition  by  Congress  of  the 
principle  that  any  slave  once  employed  to  work  for 
the  government  (by  spade,  or  hoe,  or  mattock,  no 
matter  which)  shall  from  that  moment  be  free, 
with  his  family,  —  providing  compensation  for  loyal 
masters  ? 

"  If  you  can  do  this,  clinch  it  by  a  registration 
of  slaves  called  into  the  government  service,  which 
shall  hereafter  constitute  their  free  papers.  Then 
let  all  those  Sea  Islanders  now  working  under  gov 
ernment  orders  be  so  registered. 

"  If  you  get  general  emancipation,  this  will  be 
unnecessary  ;  but  if,  under  either  success  or  disaster, 
some  wretched  compromise  is  made,  you  may  here 
after,  without  it,  have  a  hard  struggle  to  prevent 
these  freemen  here  being  given  back  to  their  rebel 
masters,  with  thousands  of  others  who  have  dug 
our  trenches,  or  otherwise  struck  a  blow  for  the 
Union ! 

"  Do  not  despise  the  small  things  within  reach 
while  aiming  at  the  large  ones  you  may  miss." 

Meanwhile  my  father  and  his  guests,  Messrs. 
Heard,  Bacon,  and  Brooks,  had  been  enjoying 
themselves  much  in  the  company  of  his  son  William 
and  his  fellow  officers.  At  first  they  had  to  draw 


JOURNEY  TO  THE  SOUTH  303 

supplies  through  the  sutlers,  but  a  few  days  later 
my  father  was  wakened  early  in  the  morning  by 
his  "  plucky  and  trusty  Captain  Smith/'  who  had 
brought  the  little  Azalea  down  from  Naushon,  with 
a  crew  of  three,  in  five  days ;  after  which  there 
was  plenty  in  the  land,  and  there  were  yachting 
excursions  to  Hilton  Head  and  rides  along  the 
sands  there  on  the  chargers  of  his  friend,  Major 
Henry  Higginson,  who  was  quartered  there.  The 
mails,  too,  always  one  of  his  first  considerations, 
could  now  be  brought  up  the  river  promptly,  and 
altogether  the  Azalea  was  a  great  comfort.  During 
one  of  his  trips  to  Hilton  Head,  he  made  the  ac 
quaintance  of  the  mulatto,  Robert  Smalls,  on  board 
the  little  Planter,  which  he  had  run  out  of  Charles 
ton  under  the  guns  of  Fort  Sumter,  and  was  now 
apparently  running  on  his  own  account.  At  that 
time  he  was  slight  and  wide-awake,  —  afterwards  to 
become,  in  carpet-bag  times,  a  very  different  per 
sonage. 

Early  in  April  came  the  time  when  his  friends, 
Messrs.  Heard  and  Bacon,  had  to  turn  their  faces 
homeward.  What  was  done  then  by  a  man  still 
"  coughing  like  a  dog  barking  "  my  father  confesses 
without  contrition  in  his  notes  :  — 

"  I  took  them  over  to  Hilton  Head  to  embark, 
and  a  fit  of  homesickness  coming  over  me  I  just 
stepped  on  board  the  Atlantic,  with  my  hand  bag 
and  coat,  and  ran  back  home,  leaving  the  Azalea  to 
do  transport  service  for  General  Hunter,  and  a  line 
to  W.  H.  F.  to  give  notice  of  my  intentions.  We 


304  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

reached  home  in  very  cold  weather,  and  the  doctor 
at  once  pronounced  me  insane  to  come  North,  and 
ordered  me  back  by  the  return  trip  of  the  Atlantic ; 
and  my  wife,  in  spite  of  her  seasickness  and  the 
cares  of  the  family,  determined  to  go  with  me. 
Luckily  we  had  a  very  smooth  passage  down,  and 
she  really  suffered  less  than  I  have  seen  her  do  in 
going  from  New  Bedford  to  Naushon  against  a 
southwest  breeze.  We  stopped  in  at  Fortress  Mon 
roe  to  get  some  ordnance  stores.  Our  visit  there 
was  at  the  great  crisis  when  McClellan's  army  was 
collecting  for  its  movement  on  Eichmond,  and  al 
ready  100,000  soldiers  were  around  Fortress  Monroe. 
It  was  a  gay  spectacle.  Just  before  this,  the  great 
sea-fight  between  the  Merrimac  and  the  Monitor 
had  occurred,  and  the  little  Monitor  lay  there  with 
steam  up,  expecting  hourly  to  see  the  great  Merrimac 
come  out  from  Norfolk  (fifteen  miles  distant)  to 
renew  the  attack  on  our  fleet.  Our  friend,  Admiral 
Goldsborough,  was  then  in  command  of  the  fleet, 
and  the  ships  which  had  suffered  (without  being 
sunk)  in  the  late  battle  had  not  yet  repaired  dam 
ages.  I  was  too  ill  to  go  about,  but  Goldsborough 
came  to  see  me,  and  my  wife  visited  some  of  the 
vessels.  After  a  few  very  exciting  hours  at  Fortress 
Monroe,  we  put  out  to  sea  and  reached  Hilton  Head 
and  Beaufort  without  adventure.  I  had  given  up 
my  house  on  leaving,  so  when  we  reached  Beaufort, 
Dr.  De  Wolf,  the  assistant  surgeon  of  the  First 
Cavalry,  took  us  into  his  hospital,  giving  us  his 
room  for  a  night ;  and  the  next  day,  armed  with  an 


JOURNEY  TO  THE  SOUTH  305 

order  from  General  Stevens,  I  managed  to  get  on 
horseback,  and  with  Will's  servant  went  in  search 
of  other  quarters.  After  examining  all  the  most 
prominent  vacant  houses  within  the  lines,  we  pitched 
upon  a  very  nice  one  outside  the  camp,  at  the  ex 
treme  point  where  the  river  branches,  or  two  rivers 
meet.  This,  though  now  dismantled,  had  the  ad 
vantage  of  a  veranda,  garden,  and,  best  of  all,  a 
water  tank,  shaded  by  some  fine  live  oaks ;  and  was 
only  inhabited  by  some  of  the  "  Gideonites,"  who 
promised  at  once  to  make  way  for  us.  A  messenger 
was  sent  out  for  some  negro  woman  to  sweep  and 
scrub  the  floors,  and  my  shawl,  laid  over  a  board  for 
a  sofa,  made  me  a  temporary  bed ;  for  the  short  ride 
had  exhausted  my  strength.  After  the  work  had 
gone  on  some  time  I  received  a  very  unexpected 
visit  from  the  captain  of  a  revenue  cutter,  who  came 
in  with  a  companion,  and  told  me  he  was  sorry  I  had 
taken  so  much  trouble  about  cleaning  up  the  house, 
as  he  had  "  just  determined  to  take  it  for  his  own 
use."  He  had  an  air  of  authority,  a  good  many 
brass  buttons,  some  gilt  braid,  and  seemed  to  think 
he  had  settled  the  whole  matter  ;  he  kindly  promised 
to  pay  for  the  work  done,  and  even  criticised  the 
brick  andirons,  which  he  told  his  friends  would  be 
replaced  by  some  better  brass  ones.  I  was  rather 
angry  and  very  tired,  and  listened  till  my  patience 
gave  out,  when  I  told  him  that  he  must  leave  the 
room,  as  I  was  not  well ;  and  when  he  brought  me 
an  order  from  General  Stevens  countermanding  the 
one  I  had,  he  should  have  the  house,  and  not  till 


306  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

then.  Our  friend,  Tom  Motley,1  had  come  in  while 
the  fine  gentleman  was  making  his  remarks,  and  I 
just  asked  him  to  take  my  horse,  which  stood  saddled 
in  the  yard,  and  go  to  headquarters.  My  naval 
friend  had  hardly  gone,  when  Tom  returned  with  a 
message  from  General  Stevens  to  the  effect  that  the 
house  was  mine,  and  that  if  anybody  interfered  with 
me  he  would  send  a  corporal's  guard  to  protect  me ; 
and  here  ended  this  little  skirmish. 

"  By  dinner-time  my  wife  came  round,  and  with 
a  trunk  for  a  table  we  made  our  first  meal  and  got 
to  housekeeping  ;  some  of  the  officers  sent  us  pieces 
of  furniture  which  they  had  "  borrowed "  from 
former  owners,  and  we  were  soon  reasonably  com 
fortable." 

With  the  little  Azalea  close  by,  they  felt  quite  at 
home,  and,  with  the  exception  of  one  scare  of  a 
raid,  spent  a  quiet  and  happy  time  watching  the 
negroes,  young  and  old,  busy  over  their  spelling- 
books,  "  getting  education  ;  "  making  excursions  in 
a  rickety  wagon,  one  day  picnicking  with  their  son 
while  he  was  on  picket  duty,  and  another  listening 
to  the  twenty-miles-off  bombardment  of  Fort  Pulaski, 
and  finally,  just  before  leaving  for  home  on  the  14th 
of  May,  enjoying  the  delicious  blackberries  which 
the  colored  folk  had  begun  to  bring  in  heaping 
baskets  on  their  heads.  Looking  back  upon  this 
time  in  1886,  my  father  writes  :  — 

"My  two  visits  to  Beaufort  seem  like  a  dream 
with  only  a  few  distinct  points ;  the  yellow  jasmine, 

1  Brother  of  John  Lothrop  Motley.  —  ED. 


JOURNEY  TO  THE  SOUTH  307 

and  the  other  flowers  of  the  woods  and  gardens,  be 
ing  the  most  pleasant.  Among  the  comic  incidents 
my  exhibition  of  the  Spencer  rifle  may  be  worth  tell 
ing.  I  had  brought  with  me  in  the  Azalea  one  of 
the  first  specimens  of  the  Spencer  six-shooter ;  had 
tried  it  at  Naushon,  and  was  confident  it  would  turn 
out  the  great  success  which  it  afterward  proved. 
Telling  Admiral  Dupont  about  it  on  his  ship  (per 
haps  the  frigate  W  abash)  at  Hilton  Head,  he  asked 
me  to  show  it  and  sent  a  boat  to  the  Azalea  for  me. 
It  was  about  noon,  when  the  500  men  of  the  ship 
were  being  mustered  on  deck,  and  all  eyes  were 
upon  me  as  I  snapped  the  gun,  aiming  through  an 
open  port.  It  was  the  first  time  the  gun  had  ever 
missed,  but  either  my  nervousness  or  the  devil  inter 
vened  and  it  stuck  fast ;  I  could  not  get  it  off  and 
had  to  drop  it  in  disgust. 

"  As  a  whole  our  recollections  of  this  trip  are  very 
pleasant ;  we  found  the  climate  delightful  most  of 
the  spring ;  my  cough  gradually  yielded,  and  about 
the  middle  of  May  we  again  embarked  on  the  At 
lantic  and  made  our  way  home." 

But  before  leaving,  my  father  had  become  quite 
intimate  with  General  Hunter,  who  commanded  at 
Hilton  Head.  He  had  found  him  on  his  first  trip  "a 
wonderful  specimen  of  an  enlightened  army  officer 
who  had  been  converted  by  secession  into  an  aboli 
tionist."  They  had  long  and  confidential  talks  to 
gether,  and  he  appears  to  have  sympathized  with  the 
general's  enlisting  colored  soldiers  "long  before 
Governor  Andrew  was  allowed  to  do  so  in  Massa- 


308  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

chusetts,"  and  with  his  issue  of  a  proclamation  of 
freedom,  in  May,  1862,  which,  however,  brought 
down  on  him  a  rebuke  from  the  President.  He  was 
evidently  privy  to  the  following  pungent  answer  of 
General  Hunter  to  inquiries  made  by  Secretary 
Stanton,  in  consequence  of  resolutions  introduced 
into  the  House  of  Representatives  hostile  to  the 
emancipation  or  enlistment  of  the  slaves  :  — 

"  Question  1st.  Whether  I  had  organized  or  was 
organizing  a  regiment  of  ' fugitive  slaves'  in  this 
department  ? 

"  To  the  first  question  I  reply,  that  no  regiment 
of  ( fugitive  slaves '  has  been,  or  is  being,  organized 
in  this  department.  There  is,  however,  a  fine  regi 
ment  of  persons  whose  late  masters  are  '  fugitive 
rebels,'  men  who  everywhere  fly  before  the  appear 
ance  of  the  national  flag,  leaving  their  servants 
behind  them  to  shift  as  best  they  can  for  them 
selves.  So  far  indeed  are  the  loyal  persons  compos 
ing  this  regiment  from  seeking  to  avoid  the  presence 
of  their  late  owners,  that  they  are  now  one  and  all 
working  with  remarkable  industry  to  place  them 
selves  in  a  position  to  go  in  full  and  effective  pur 
suit  of  their  fugacious  and  traitorous  proprietors." 

On  his  return  to  Boston  came  a  letter  from  Mr. 
Sedgwick :  — 

C.    B.    SEDGWICK   TO   J.   M.   FORBES. 

WASHINGTON,  18  May,  1862. 

...  I  hope  God  will  give  his  servant  Abraham 
the  grace  to  stand  by  his  general  and  not  let  the 


JOURNEY  TO  THE  SOUTH  309 

border  state  men  sacrifice  him.  I  cannot  say,  how 
ever,  that  I  have  the  highest  degree  of  faith  in  a 
president  who  thinks  it  necessary  to  salvation  to 
allow  the  enforcement  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law 
in  this  District  at  this  time.  .  .  . 

My  father  had  been  much  exercised  during  both 
trips  to  Beaufort  by  the  prejudice  against  the  Edu 
cational  Commission,  and  the  unfair  treatment  of 
them;  and  immediately  on  his  return  home  he 
wrote  the  following  letter  to  the  treasurer  of  the 
commission :  — 

J.   M.   FORBES  TO  EDWARD   ATKINSON. 

BOSTON,  May  23,  1862. 

MY  DEAR  SIR,  — ...  I  would  gladly  do  anything, 
except  come  before  the  public,  to  help  your  good 
work.  You  may  use  my  testimony  in  any  other  way 
than  over  my  signature,  and  the  indorsements  of  the 
"  Daily  " l  and  other  journals  would  seem  to  answer 
all  purposes.  I  have  watched  the  Educational  Com 
mission  from  its  very  inception  with  the  greatest  in 
terest,  and,  while  in  Secessia,  had  every  opportunity 
to  gauge  it,  not  only  by  the  criticisms  of  its  many 
enemies,  and  by  the  statements  of  its  friends,  but  by 
personal  observation.  It  was  started  very  late,  and 
when  only  the  most  prompt  and  even  hasty  measures 
gave  it  a  chance  of  success.  These  measures  were 
taken  chiefly  at  Boston,  with  that  efficiency  which 
marks  our  good  city  and  State.  A  large  number  of 

1  The  Boston  Daily  Advertiser. 


310  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

volunteers  were  hurried  from  various  pursuits,  down 
into  South  Carolina,  where,  in  about  ten  days  after 
the  enterprise  was  first  thought  of,  they  found  them 
selves  landed,  with  bare  floors  to  sleep  upon,  soldier's 
rations  to  eat,  and  the  obloquy  and  ridicule  of  all 
around  them  for  "  sauce  piquante." 

Under  all  their  inexperience,  and  all  these  disad 
vantages,  they  have  worked  their  way  quietly  on, 
and  up  to  the  time  when  I  left,  May  lith,  when  the 
new  rule  of  military  governor  was  about  beginning, 
they  had  accomplished  the  following  results. 

First  and  foremost.  They  had  inspired  confi 
dence  in  the  blacks  by  their  kindness,  and  especially 
by  their  bringing  the  first  boon  which  these  forlorn 
creatures  had  received  from  us,  namely,  an  oppor 
tunity  for  education.  In  all  else  the  negroes  have 
been  materially  worse  off  than  under  their  old  mas 
ters,  —  with  only  their  scanty  ration  of  Indian  corn, 
no  shoes,  blankets,  clothing,  molasses,  or  other  neces 
saries,  and  no  luxuries  given  them,  of  which  they 
formerly  had  a  moderate  allowance.  Against  all 
this  they  had  had  only  the  doubtful  advantage  of 
idleness  or  precarious  employment,  and  the  promises 
of  the  cotton  agents.  It  was  a  great  point  to  put 
over  them  intelligent  and  Christian  teachers,  and 
this  they  have  fully  appreciated. 

Second.  The  material  benefits  which  have  re 
sulted,  namely :  beginning  very  late,  the  forces  of 
the  plantation  have  been  organized  to  reasonably 
steady  labor ;  a  full  crop  of  food  has  been  planted 
in  common,  besides  many  much  larger  private,  or,  as 


JOURNEY  TO  THE  SOUTH  311 

these  are  called,  "Negro  Grounds/'  planted  than 
ever  before.  I  saw  repeatedly  whole  gangs  who 
had  finished  their  plantation  work  by  ten  A.  M.,  and 
had  all  the  rest  of  the  day  for  their  own  patches, 
some  of  which  are  four  or  five  times  as  large  as 
usual. 

Third.  In  addition  to  the  food  crop,  enough 
cotton  land  has  been  planted  to  give  the  negroes,  if 
they  are  allowed  to  take  care  of  the  crop  and  enjoy 
its  fruits,  more  of  the  necessaries  and  indeed  com 
forts  of  life  than  they  have  ever  had  before. 

To  sum  up,  we  have  then  for  some  of  the  results, 

The  confidence  of  the  blacks ; 

The  education,  so  far  as  it  goes ; 

The  encouragement  of  industry ;  and 

The   material  advantage  of  food  and  cotton 

crops ; 

instead  of  leaving  the  negroes  alone  to  run  into  vice 
and  pauperism,  or  turning  them  over  to  the  tender 
mercies  of  hard  speculators. 

Of  course,  the  agents  of  the  commission  have 
made  mistakes  in  some  cases,  and  some  of  them 
have  been  ill  chosen,  and  have  helped  the  enemies 
of  the  enterprise  to  bring  it  into  local  discredit; 
but  generally  the  whole  has  been  a  most  successful 
undertaking,  and  most  of  those  sent  from  this  quar 
ter  have,  by  their  patience,  faithfulness,  and  dis 
interested  zeal,  been  a  credit  to  Massachusetts. 
They,  as  a  whole,  form  a  noble  band  of  men  and 
women.  They  have  had  everything  to  contend 
with,  especially  the  opposition  of  many  with  whose 


312  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

interests  they  interfered,  and  of  others  whose  pre 
judices  they  offended.  Their  predecessors  on  the 
plantations,  the  cotton  agents  and  military,  had 
begun  to  look  upon  themselves  as  the  successors  to 
the  planters,  entitled  to  the  use  of  all  that  was  left, 
houses,  horses,  negroes,  crops. 

When  the  agents  of  the  commission  came  down 
to  take  charge  of  the  plantations,  they  were  looked 
upon  as  interlopers,  and  in  most  cases  every  obstacle, 
short  of  absolute  disobedience  to  the  orders  of  the 
commanding  general,  was  thrown  in  their  way.  All 
the  little  mistakes  of  the  new-comers  were  magnified ; 
all  the  good  they  did  ignored,  and  a  local  public 
opinion  thus  created  against  them,  which  many  of 
our  own  soldiers,  who  ought  to  have  known  better, 
gave  in  to.  "  What  a  ridiculous  thing  for  these 
philanthropists  to  come  down  and  teach  the  stupid 
negroes,  and  occupy  the  plantations,  and  use  the 
secesh  ponies  which  had  been  so  convenient  for  our 
pickets!" 

Such  was  the  natural  feeling  of  the  unthinking, 
and  of  some  who  ought  to  have  reflected.  This  false 
opinion  was  largely  availed  of  by  the  "  Herald  " 
and  other  kindred  papers,  to  create  prejudice  at  the 
North  against  an  enterprise  aiming  to  improve  the 
condition  of  the  blacks.  How  much  more  satisfac 
tory  to  this  class  would  it  have  been  to  have  had  the 
negroes  left  to  their  own  devices,  and  then  given  all 
the  enemies  of  improvement  a  chance  to  say,  "  We 
told  you  so !  The  negroes  are  worse  off  than  be 
fore,  — idle,  vicious,  paupers.  The  sooner  you  reduce 


JOURNEY  TO  THE  SOUTH  313 

them  to  slavery  again,  and  the  more  firmly  you  bind 
the  rest  of  their  race  to  eternal  slavery,  the  better!" 

It  would  take  too  long  to  go  into  the  question  of 
what  is  to  be  done  hereafter ;  but  there  was  an  emer 
gency  three  months  ago  which  has,  in  my  opinion, 
been  successfully  met;  and  among  other  results  I 
believe  you  will  have  the  testimony  of  all  who  have 
been  engaged  in  the  experiment,  that  it  has  dis 
tinctly  proved  that  the  negro  has  the  same  selfish 
element  in  him  which  induces  other  men  to  labor. 
Give  him  only  a  fair  prospect  of  benefit  from  his 
labor,  and  he  will  work  like  other  human  beings. 
Doubtless  hereafter  this  selfish  element  must  be 
appealed  to  more  than  it  could  be  by  the  agents  of 
the  commission.  There  must  be  less  working  in 
common,  and  more  done  for  the  especial  benefit  of 
each  laborer.  It  is  much  to  establish  the  fact  that 
this  element  of  industry  exists. 

In  conclusion,  I  consider  the  Educational  Com 
mission  up  to  this  time  a  decided  success.  I  con 
gratulate  you  and  your  associates  upon  having  added 
another  to  the  good  deeds  of  Massachusetts,  not  by 
any  means  forgetting  the  share  which  New  York 
has  had  in  the  good  work ;  and  I  sincerely  hope  that 
General  Saxton,  cooperating  with  you,  may  in  a 
manner  worthy  of  his  high  reputation  complete 
what  has  been  so  well  begun. 

Very  truly  yours,  J.  M.  FORBES. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

THE   PROSECUTION    OF    THE  WAR 

DURING  my  father's  stay  at  Beaufort,  S.  C.,  he  had 
been  impressed  with  the  inadequacy  of  the  Union 
forces  stationed  on  the  Sea  Islands  for  any  forward 
movement;  and  so,  soon  after  his  return  home,  I 
find  him  (with  the  view  of  averting  if  possible  the 
consequent  trouble)  trying  to  stir  up  the  press  on 
the  subject.  The  following  letters  show  with  what 
eagerness  he  was  using  every  means  of  influence 
within  his  power,  in  this  and  other  matters  of  pub 
lic  welfare  :  — 

TO  PAKKE   GODWIN,  EDITOR   OF  THE  NEW  YORK   "  EVEN 
ING  POST." 

BOSTON,  June  23,  1862. 

MY  DEAR  SIR,  —  ...  The  "  New  Bedford  Mer 
cury,"  under  its  new  management,  is  getting  to  be 
quite  a  live  paper.  I  wish  as  much  could  be  said 
for  our  administration,  which  seems  to  be  carrying  a 
millstone  about  its  neck  in  its  dread  of  the  border 
States  and  of  "Hunkerism"  generally.  I  believe 
to-day  that  the  old  Union  Democrats,  and  even  the 
true  men  of  the  border  States,  are  ahead  of  Lincoln 
upon  this  question  of  hitting  the  rebels  hard  —  with 


THE  PROSECUTION  OF  THE  WAR  315 

the  negro  or  any  other  club.  It  is  strange  when  a 
rattlesnake  is  attacking  us  that  we  should  be  so  deli 
cate  about  the  stick  we  hit  him  with ! 

I  look  with  much  anxiety  to  our  operations  in 
South  Carolina.  Beauregard's  army,  on  its  way  from 
Corinth,  passes  directly  by  Charleston.  Our  force 
is  ridiculously  small  for  attack,  the  Key  West  troops 
included  —  if  they  can  get  there.  Our  negro 
brigade  amounts  to  nothing  until  trained.  "We  need 
prompt  reinforcement  there,  or  we  shall  have 
another  blow  half  struck,  or  possibly  a  recoil  there. 

TO  CHARLES   B.  SEDGWICK,  WASHINGTON. 

June  2, 1862. 

MY  DEAR  MR.  SEDGWICK,  —  I  see  I  forgot  the 
21stly,  as  the  old  parsons  used  to  say,  of  my  ser 
mon  ;  my  amen  to  your  emancipation  speech. 

If  you  have  such  a  devilish  poor  set  in  Congress 
that  they  are  afraid  to  pass  your  bill,  for  freeing 
such  slaves  as  come  to  our  aid,  you  had  better  give 
up  trying  for  any  emancipation  bill  until  Parson 
Brownlow,  General  Rodgers,  and  other  pro-slavery 
border  state  men  have  cultivated  the  manliness  of 
Congress  up  to  the  Tennessee  standard  !  Why,  I 
hear  that  the  border  state  Unionists  everywhere  are 
in  advance  of  Congress,  and  go  for  strangling  the 
rebellion  through  its  vitals,  not  pinching  the  ends  of 
its  toes !  Rather  than  take  anything  worse  than 
your  bill,  I  would  trust  to  old  Abe's  being  pushed 
up  to  the  use  of  the  military  powers  of  emanci 
pation.  What  infernal  nonsense  is  your  present 


316  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

law,  making  freedom  the  reward  of  those  who  serve 
the  enemy,  while  their  masters  only  promise  them 
hanging  and  burning  if  they  serve  us. 

You  carry  on  the  war  in  such  a  manner  that  either 
slaves  or  other  loyal  men  in  the  border  and  rebel 
States  have  one  plain  road  to  safety  open ;  namely, 
to  help  the  rebels.  You  reward  the  slaves  with 
freedom  for  such  help :  you  offer  them  no  reward, 
except  the  chance  of  being  shot  by  us  and  hanged 
by  their  masters,  if  they  come  into  our  lines  !  .  .  . 

Your  lame  confiscation  bill  will  be  no  terror  to  the 
rebels,  but  rather  an  indication  of  the  mildness  with 
which  you  will  treat  them  hereafter,  and  the  many 
exceptions  you  will  make  if  you  pass  any  confisca 
tion  acts. 

I  only  wonder  with  such  a  policy  that  any  Union 
men  show  their  heads  !  All  your  efforts  seem  to  be 
to  make  rebellion  cheap  and  easy,  and  loyalty  hard 
and  dangerous. 

In  great  haste,  I  bide  yours, 

J.  M.  FORBES. 


TO  THE  SAME. 

BOSTON,  June  7, 1862. 

MYDEAB  MR.  SEDGWICK,  —  Cannot  you  get  some 
ingenuous  Hunker  ...  to  offer  a  little  simple  amend 
ment  to  the  emancipation  bill  that  shall  provide  for 
the  freedom  of  any  slave  (and  his  family)  who  may 
serve  the  United  States,  a  certificate  from  the  military 
officer  cognizant  of  such  service  to  be  his  warrant 
for  free  papers  from  any  court  of  record,  etc.,  etc., 


THE  PROSECUTION  OF  THE  WAR  317 

loyal  masters  to  be  compensated  —  rascals  not  ? 
Such  an  amendment,  coming  from  a  radical,  disor 
ganizing  red  Republican  like  C.  B.  S.  of  Syracuse, 
would  be  of  course  summarily  put  down ;  there 
must  always  be  a  ferocious  cat,  or  royal  Bengal 
tiger  rather,  under  his  meal !  but  such  an  innocent 
and  proper  provision  would  be,  I  suppose,  unan 
imously  adopted  if  offered  by  some  moderate  Repub 
lican.  Our  good  friend  Horton  now  would  carry  it 
nem.  con.,  unless  you  radicals,  from  the  mere  force 
of  habit,  oppose  him.  .  .  . 

General  Hunter  hit  the  nail  on  the  head  when  he 
said  to  me,  "  I  want  to  find  out  whether  we,  as  well 
as  the  rebels,  are  fighting  chiefly  for  the  preserva 
tion  of  slavery ! " 

Trebly  conservative  as  I  am,  I  sometimes  get  so 
disgusted  with  the  timidity  and  folly  of  our  moderate 
Republicans  that  I  should  go  in  and  join  the  Aboli 
tionists  if  these  last  were  not  so  arbitrary  and  illiberal 
that  no  man  of  independence  can  live  in  the  house 
with  them.  Yours, 

J.  M.  F. 

TO    CHARLES    SUMNER,   WASHINGTON. 

BOSTON,  June  21,  1862. 

MY  DEAR  MR.  SUMNER,  —  The  inclosed  is  from 
a  Russian  who  was  once,  I  believe,  in  the  Czar's  ser 
vice.  Thinking  it  possible  that  you  might  have  a 
chance  to  show  it  to  the  President,  I  have  had  a  fair 
copy  made  of  the  substance  of  it,  and  inclosed. 
Please  return  me  the  original.  I  used  to  think 


318  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

emancipation  only  another  name  for  murder,  fire,  and 
rape,  but  mature  reflection  and  considerable  personal 
observation  have  since  convinced  me  that  eman 
cipation  may,  at  any  time,  be  declared  without  dis 
order  ;  and  especially  now  when  we  have  two  white 
armies  in  the  field  to  prevent  mischief.  The  Russian, 
you  see,  is  of  this  opinion  from  his  experience.  We 
now  have,  too,  for  the  first  and  perhaps  only  time, 
the  power  to  emancipate,  under  the  emergency  of 
war,  without  infringing  upon  the  Constitution. 

The  only  question,  then,  is  as  to  the  necessity.  Of 
course  we  are  not  to  wait  until  the  last  deadly  neces 
sity  comes.  We  have  spent  millions  upon  millions 
of  money  and  thousands  of  lives.  Shall  we  wait 
until  the  deadly  fevers  of  the  South  have  stript  off 
more  thousands,  and  until  our  credit  begins  to  totter 
under  the  load?  I  am  no  philanthropist,  but  I  do 
want  to  see  the  promptest  and  hardest  blows  struck. 
I  only  ask  that  the  weakest  point  of  the  enemy  shall 
be  assailed  before  throwing  away  more  valuable 
lives. 

TO  THE   SAME. 

BOSTON,  June  27,  1862. 

MY  DEAR  MB.  SUMKER,  —  The  inclosed 1  will 
explain  itself.  If  you  don't  object,  you  may  think 
it  worth  sending  to  the  "  Evening  Post,"  with  our 

1  A  squib  in  the  form  of  a  supposed  letter  from  a  business  firm  to 
Senator  Sumner,  referring  to  the  acknowledged  acceptance  of  a 
bribe  by  a  United  States  senator,  and  frankly  proposing  to  bribe 
Mr.  Sumner  into  obtaining  government  contracts  for  them.  —  ED. 


THE  PROSECUTION  OF  THE  WAR  319 

names  struck  out !  I  do  not  see  how  the  Senate 
can  sit  with  a  member  who  acknowledges  such 
operations,  unless  a  majority  of  the  senators  are 
rotten.  Even  then  I  should  think  the  honest  ones 
could  stuff  it  down  their  throats.  If  you  don't  do 
something,  the  public  verdict  will  be  that  you  dare 
not  denounce  what  has  been  a  senatorial  custom.  .  .  . 
Whoever  it  hits.  Republican,  Hunker,  or  pro-slavery 
Democrat,  the  knife  ought  to  be  applied,  and  all 
the  sooner  because  the  immediate  sinner  is  a  soi~ 
disant  Republican. 

TO   C.   B.    SEDGWICK,   WASHINGTON. 

BOSTON,  June  27,  1862. 

MY  DEAR  MR.  SEDGWICK,  —  I  have  not  heard  a 
word  from  you  since  I  wrote  you  an  abusive  letter 
because  you  did  not  go  far  enough  in  your  bill.  I 
will  take  it  all  back  if  you  are  offended,  and  make 
the  most  abject  apologies  !  What  is  the  present 
market  price  of  a  senator  ?  S.  was  rather  dear  at 
fifty,  but  I  suppose  he  was  rather  high  up  on  the 
committee ! 

When  are  you  coming  this  way,  and  when  will 
you  and  Mrs.  Sedgwick  give  us  a  visit  at  Naushon  ? 
We  shall  go  there  some  time  next  month. 

I  was  sorry,  but  not  surprised,  to  see  that  we  had 
had  a  rebuff  at  Charleston.1  When  I  returned  from 
Port  Royal,  I  wrote  to  Senator  Wilson  urging  re 
inforcements  and  predicting  disaster  if  we  went 

1  Probably  referring  to  a  skirmish  at  Secessionville,  S.  C.,  in 
which  the  Union  forces  were  defeated. 


320  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

without  them.  I  don't  think  now  our  forces  are 
safe  on  the  Sea  Islands,  outside  the  guns  of  the 
navy,  without  reinforcements. 

Very  truly  yours,         J.  M.  FORBES. 
How  beautifully  easy  you  legislators  have  made 
money !     How  valuable  your  restriction  to  one  hun 
dred  millions ! 

C.    B.    SEDGWICK  TO   J.   M.    FOKBES. 

WASHINGTON,  29^  June,  1862. 

MY  DEAR  MR.  FORBES,  —  Well,  by  Jove,  if  this 
is  n't  the  luckiest  escape  I  ever  had  !  I  have  been 
swearing  at  myself  the  last  fortnight  for  abusing  you 
like  a  pickpocket,  taking  no  notice  of  your  friendly 
letters  which  by  way  of  penance  I  have  kept  on  my 
table  where  I  should  see  them  on  coming  in  or 
going  out,  on  lying  down  and  rising  up,  expecting 
every  day  to  hear  that  you  had  denied  on  'Change 
having  ever  seen  me,  and  now  comes  your  letter 
offering  an  apology.  Good  !  make  it !  it  shall  be 
accepted,  although  your  last  letter  was  abusive. 
The  truth  is  I  vowed  never  to  write  you  until  I  had 
settled  for  you  the  inclosed  account,1  which  you 
sent  me  just  twenty-seven  days  ago.  They  tried  to 
send  it  back,  but  I  said  no,  I  wanted  it  paid,  and  I 
have  only  just  got  it,  although  it  appears  to  have 
been  made  out  several  days.  Please  sign  it  in  all 
the  places  where  you  see  room  for  your  name  and 
return  it  to  me,  and  I  will  hand  over  the  money  to 
the  Sanitary,  if  you  still  remain  charitably  inclined. 

...  I   showed   H.  your   letter  about  generals 

1  Of  expenses  incurred  on  the  Ship  Commission. 


THE  PROSECUTION  OF  THE  WAR  321 

giving  certificates  to  loyal  blacks  who  had  served 
the  government,  which  would  serve  as  manumission 
deeds  to  them  and  their  families.  It  seemed  to  go 
through  his  feathers  as  a  good  practical  idea,  and 
he  has  taken  the  letter  home  to  Ohio  to  consider  of 
it  and  sit  on  it ! 

I  have  yet  some  hopes  ;  I  think  the  tone  of  Con 
gress  is  improving,  but  very  slowly.  If  Mallory 
don't  succeed  in  hanging  me,  as  he  proposes,  I  may 
bring  them  up  to  something  practical  yet. 

Grimes  is  crowding  the  principle  of  your  sugges 
tion  in  the  Senate  and  says  he  shall  pass  it.  There 
is  a  scriptural  objection,  however,  to  success ;  it  is 
written  that  "  you  may  bray  an  ass  in  a  mortar,  she 
will  not  be  wise."  How  would  firing  them  out  of 
Porter's  mortar  answer?  After  we  have  been 
whipped  a  few  times,  as  we  were  on  James  Island,  I 
think  our  ideas  on  the  subject  of  natural  allies  will 
be  improved.  Do  you  see  that  your  friend  Fremont 
has  been  kicking  out  of  the  traces  again  ?  I  fear 
J.  has  been  putting  him  up  to  this  folly.  You  will 
have  to  give  him  up  as  one  of  the  impracticables, 
and  go  in  for  some  more  steady  and  less  mercurial 
general. 

About  Naushon  ;  I  should  like  to  swing  a  ham 
mock  under  a  beech  in  the  forests  there  about  15th 
August  and  sleep  for  two  weeks.  I  am  tired  out ; 
we  have  pretty  much  reorganized  the  whole  Navy 
Department.  I  have  worked  hard  upon  it  and  am 
fatigued.  After  making  it  all  over  new,  would  it 
not  be  well  enough  to  give  it  a  new  head  ?  .  .  . 


322  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

After  being  home  three  or  four  weeks  I  want  to 
come  down  to  your  kingdom  by  the  sea  to  rest.  I 
will  bring  my  wife  down  to  talk.  Please  let  me 
know  what  time  in  the  last  half  of  August  it  will  be 
convenient  for  you  to  see  us. 

I  am  very  sorry  for  that  reverse  in  Charleston.  I 
shall  try  and  make  a  row  about  it,  but  I  suppose  it 
will  do  no  good  until  Eichmond  is  taken.  If  you 
find  money  hard  to  be  got  let  us  know  and  we  will 
get  out  another  batch  of  greenbacks.  The  next 
bill  will  make  provision  for  a  large  government 
paper-mill,  and  so  we  will  save  all  the  profits. 
With  kind  regards  to  Mrs.  F.  and  the  children. 

The  following  letter  to  my  mother  from  the  doc 
tor  of  my  brother's  regiment  may  serve  to  indicate 
how  she  seconded  the  efforts  of  my  father,  and  to 
show  that  part  of  their  time  at  Beaufort  must  have 
been  spent  in  finding  out  the  needs  of  the  hospital 
there.  Later  on  in  the  war,  the  Armory  Square 
Hospital  in  Washington,  three  wards  of  which  were 
presided  over  by  our  friends  Miss  Emma  Ware,  Miss 
Lowell,  and  Miss  Stone,  could  have  given  a  similar 
account  of  care  and  thought. 

DR.   DE  WOLF  TO   MBS.   J.   M.   FORBES. 

HILTON  HEAD,  SOUTH  CAROLINA, 
July  9,  1862. 

MY  DEAR  MRS.  FORBES,  —  Your  box  reached  us 
safely  this  morning.  A  steamer  leaves  for  New 
York  in  two  hours,  and  I  make  haste  to  tell  you 


THE  PROSECUTION  OF  THE  WAR  323 

how  much  I  wish  that  every  regiment  in  the  service 
had  a  Mrs.  Forbes  to  look  after  its  hospital  depart 
ment. 

When  the  doctors  began  to  look  around  after  the 
engagement  at  James  Island,  they  found  themselves 
destitute  of  a  great  many  things  they  needed  to 
make  their  wounded  comfortable.  The  cavalry  regi 
ment  had  more  material  suited  to  the  occasion  than 
any  other  five  regiments  in  the  expedition.  Our 
chests  and  boxes  were  opened  wide,  and  our  reputa 
tion  as  always  looking  out  for  No.  1  was  never  less 
selfishly  exhibited.  The  credit  does  not  belong  to 
us,  but  more  than  to  any  one  else,  to  you.  I  have 
written  Lieutenant  Forbes  to-day  telling  him  of  the 
boxes  we  have  received,  and  begging  him  to  thank 
you  for  us.  Without  seeing  it  personally  one  can 
not  imagine  how  much  the  want  of  such  material 
embarrasses  an  army  on  the  march  or  the  field.  At 
best,  men  must  suffer  a  great  deal ;  but  without  con 
stant  attention  to  the  clothing,  bedding,  and  dress 
ing  of  the  sick  and  wounded,  their  condition  is 
terrible.  At  present  we  have  need  of  nothing. 
The  fifty  sheets  you  have  sent  us  have  made  our 
measure  full ;  those  we  wanted  ;  the  rest  will  be 
packed  away  against  our  time  of  need.  .  .  . 

Of  the  summer  of  1862  my  father  writes  in  his 
notes  as  follows :  — 

"  In  that  summer  I  had  the  satisfaction  of  getting 
up  the  Committee  of  a  Hundred  for  promoting  the 
use  of  the  blacks  as  soldiers,  and  acted  as  chairman 


324  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

of  it.  We  raised,  I  think,  about  $100,000  by  sub 
scription  among  the  most  conservative  Republicans. 
The  first  two  Massachusetts  regiments  of  colored 
troops  were  in  course  of  formation  (54th  and  55th), 
in  which  I  was  able  to  do  something  towards  the 
choice  of  the  right  officers,  as  well  as  in  raising  the 
men,  Colonel  Shaw  having  the  54th  and  N.  P.  Hal- 
lowell  the  55th." 

The  actual  appeal  for  funds  for  raising  the  col 
ored  regiments  was  not  made  till  February,  1863. 

Another  enterprise  in  which  he  took  a  great  in 
terest  is  disclosed  in  the  following  letters  to  a  pro 
minent  lawyer  in  New  York  :  — 

TO  WM.  CURTIS  NOTES,  NEW  YORK. 

BOSTON,  July  28,  1862. 

MY  DEAR  SIR,  —  Hardly  a  day  passes  that  I  do 
not  see  some  article  which  ought  to  be  republished 
in  each  of  the  loyal  States  :  Evarts's  letter,  your 
New  York  resolutions,  one  day,  something  from  the 
"  Evening  Post "  or  "  Tribune,"  another,  something 
better  from  the  rebels,  proclaiming  themselves  "  aris 
tocrats  and  masters  bound  to  rule  us." 

It  seems  to  me  that  we  need  a  publishing  com 
mittee  with  headquarters  in  New  York,  and  a 
member  at  each  principal  point.  When  anything 
good  comes  out,  it  can  always  be  copied  without 
cost,  and  a  quantity  of  slips  struck  off  at  insignifi 
cant  expense.  These  should  be  sent  with  the  in 
dorsement  of  a  member  of  the  committee  to  each 
important  newspaper.  The  chief  cost  would  be  in 


THE  PROSECUTION  OF   THE  WAR  325 

postage,  and  this  might  fairly  be  obviated  to  a  large 
extent  by  calling  upon  members  of  Congress  for 
franks  for  an  object  of  such  public  interest.  If 
you  approve  of  the  idea,  perhaps  you  will  talk 
with  Mr.  Bryant  and  other  leading  men,  and  act. 
I  shall  be  away  all  summer,  but  I  suggest  for 
Boston  James  B.  Thayer,  a  lawyer,  brother  of  W. 
S.  Thayer,  formerly  connected  with  the  "Evening 
Post,"  now  consul-general  to  Egypt.  Party  and 
personal  interests  ought  to  be  carefully  kept  out  of 
it,  and  the  vigorous  prosecution  of  the  war  made  its 
chief  object.  Such  an  article  as  I  inclose  would 
just  now  be  of  great  value  in  raising  recruits,  and 
opening  the  eyes  of  the  people  to  the  real  nature  of 
the  contest,  aristocracy  vs.  popular  government,  and 
slave  labor  vs.  free  labor.  It  is  pretty  clear  that 
your  leaders  are  "  marching  on  "  in  New  York,  and 
it  is  now  mainly  important  to  enlighten  the  working 
classes. 

If  they  could  see  where  the  real  support  of  the 
war  lies,  it  is  my  belief  that  they  would  force 
the  administration  and  the  generals  to  fire  into  the 
enemy's  powder  magazine,  and  then  we  should  soon 
come  down  to  Mr.  Seward's  sixty  days'  duration  of 
the  war  !  Please  return  me  the  inclosed  cutting, 
which  I  mean  to  make  worth  several  recruits,  and 
oblige, 

Yours  truly,  J.  M.  FORBES. 


326  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

TO   THE    SAME. 

NAUSHON  ISLAND,  August  12, 1862. 

MY  DEAB  SIR,  —  Your  favor  of  the  7th  has  been 
sent  me  here,  where  I  am  established  for  a  month  or 
two,  with  a  chance  to  visit  Boston  only  occasionally. 
I  am  very  glad  that  my  plan  strikes  you  favorably. 
Governor  Andrew  made  me  a  flying  visit  yesterday, 
and  seems  to  like  the  idea  much ;  he  had  already 
made  use  of  the  slips  I  sent  him  of  the  "  aristocracy 
vs.  popular  government "  by  sending  them  to  the 
recruiting  stations. 

I  sincerely  hope  a  thorough  system  may  be  in 
augurated  under  your  personal  oversight  in  such 
a  manner  as  will  shut  off  any  attempt  to  use  it 
either  for  personal  ambition  (i.  e.  for  lauding  politi 
cal  or  military  aspirants),  or  even  for  pushing  the 
views  of  our  most  extreme  Republicans.  To  do  its 
best  work,  it  needs  to  be  broader  than  any  one  set 
of  men,  even  the  best,  belonging  to  our  wing  of  the 
Republican  party.  In  other  words,  its  aim  should 
not  be  anti-slavery,  except  incidentally,  but  should 
be  "  the  vigorous  prosecution  of  the  war."  How 
would  it  do  to  style  it  "  the  committee  of  correspond 
ence  upon  the  vigorous  prosecution  of  the  war  "  ? 

Mr.  George  W.  Curtis,  who  is  here,  and  has 
considerable  experience  with  the  press,  thinks  there 
is  some  danger  of  jealousy  from  the  press  at  the  ap 
pearance  of  dictation  there  would  be  in  my  original 
plan  of  sending  with  each  article  a  circular  from 
the  committee,  suggesting  its  republication.  If  this 
be  so,  perhaps  the  best  mode  would  be  to  have  our 


THE  PROSECUTION  OF  THE  WAR  327 

organization  complete,  but  informal ;  that  is  to  say, 
not  appearing  before  the  public  as  a  committee. 
The  articles  we  wish  to  have  republished  would,  in 
most  cases,  if  well  selected,  be  adopted  in  each 
State,  either  at  the  individual  suggestion  of  our 
committeeman  for  that  point,  or  they  might  be  sent 
anonymously  with  a  printed  or  written  line,  saying, 
for  instance,  that  a  ((  fellow-countryman  calls  your 
attention  to  the  inclosed  important  article  as  valuable 
for  circulation." 

One  of  the  most  important  ends  that  could  be 
gained  by  a  judicious  organization  would  be  to  sink 
and  obliterate  the  old  party  names  and  prejudices, 
especially  those  connected  with  the  name  of  demo 
crat. 

You  and  I  have  fought  under  the  Whig  ban 
ner;  one  of  our  strongest  allies  is  Mr.  Bryant,  the 
leader  of  the  only  really  Democratic  party  which 
ever  existed.  Yet  we  constantly  find  our  best  Re 
publican  journals  even  now  fighting  "  Democracy." 
It  seems  to  me  of  vast  importance  to  sink  these  old 
distinctions,  and  to  put  before  the  voting  and  fight 
ing  masses,  in  the  strongest  light,  the  real  issue  — 
of  the  war-Democratic  or  Republican  [government], 
(whichever  we  may  call  the  government  of  the  peo 
ple)  vs.  Aristocratic  government ;  in  other  words, 
the  people  vs.  a  class.  .  .  . 

I  give  you  a  rough  sketch  of  an  organization,  and 
am  very  truly  yours, 

J.  M.  FORBES. 


328  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

The  idea  thus  expressed  took  form  in  a  small 
organization  called  "  The  New  England  Loyal  Pub 
lication  Society."  Before  the  society  was  'formed, 
my  father  was  working  out  the  plan  in  his  own 
office,  using  his  clerk  for  the  business  of  sending 
out  hundreds  of  printed  slips  all  over  the  country, 
and  through  Governor  Andrew  to  the  army.  By 
degrees,  however,  the  work  became  too  much  for  a 
man  as  busy  as  he  was  at  this  time,  and,  as  I  have 
said,  the  society  was  formed.  Supported  by  him, 
and  other  patriotic  men,1  it  developed  by  degrees 
into  an  organized  and  efficient  agency  for  the  dis 
tribution  of-  sound  doctrine  on  finance  and  politics. 
The  editor  collected  the  best  articles  and  speeches 
that  met  his  eyes,  and  these  were  printed  on  a  broad 
side,  and  sent  to  nine  hundred  different  newspapers 
all  over  the  country.  Many  local  editors  were  glad 
to  find  part  of  their  work  ready  to  their  hands,  and 
availed  themselves  eagerly  of  these  sheets.  After 
careful  inquiry,  the  society  felt  assured  that  their 
publications  reached  something  like  one  million 
readers. 

The  whole  thing  gradually  grew  into  a  regular 
publication,  issued  once  a  week,  keeping  as  its  name 
the  title  of  the  society ;  it  was  under  the  charge  of 
Mr.  C.  E.  Norton,  now  Professor  Norton  of  Harvard 
University.  The  yearly  cost  of  the  whole  came  to 

1  The  executive  committee  was  as  follows :  J.  M.  Forbes,  Presi 
dent;  Wm.  Endicott,  Jr.,  Treasurer;  J.  B.  Thayer,  Secretary;  C.  E. 
Norton,  Edward  Atkinson,  Martin  Brimmer,  Rev.  E.  E.  Hale,  Henry 
B.  Rogers,  Professor  W.  B.  Rogers,  S.  G.  Ward. 


THE  PROSECUTION"  OF  THE  WAR  329 

something  under  $4000.  My  father  used  to  say 
that  he  accomplished  more  in  this  way  than  in  any 
other  during  the  war,  —  a  statement  which  indi 
cates,  at  any  rate,  his  interest  in  the  work  and  his 
confidence  as  to  its  success.  The  practical  manage 
ment  of  the  work  was  in  the  hands  of  Mr.  Norton 
and  the  secretary,  Mr.  J.  B.  Thayer,  now  Professor 
Thayer  of  the  Harvard  Law  School. 

In  the  fall  of  1862  the  following  memorandum 
was  sent  to  Governor  Andrew.  It  was  "  probably 
used,"  says  my  father,  "  with  members  of  Congress, 
and  not  sent  to  the  War  Department :  "  — 

"  Minor  Reforms  Needed.     September,  1862. 

"  1st.  Drunken  officers.  The  public,  rightly  or 
wrongly,  attribute  part  of  the  mischief  at  Bull  Run 
to  one,  Colonel  M.,  commanding  the  reserve.  .  .  . 
If  there  be  no  time  for  courts-martial,  why  not 
quietly  shelve  every  drunkard  ? 

"  2d.  Skulkers.  The  President  found  at  Har 
rison's  Bar  half  his  army  unaccounted  for.  The 
papers  tell  of  crowds  of  stragglers  helping  to  make 
panics  in  each  battle.  The  enemy  shoot  their 
stragglers.  We  might  at  least  drop,  if  not  from  a 
tree  by  a  rope,  at  least  from  the  army  list,  every 
skulking  officer.  .  .  .  The  inclosed  cutting  gives  a 
hint  of  where  the  record  can  be  found  (the  Mar 
shall  House  and  City  Hotel,  Alexandria)  of  the 
doings  of  135  officers  on  Sunday,  August  31,  when 
our  army  was  in  its  greatest  peril.  Why  not  call 
on  each  to  account  satisfactorily  for  his  being  there 


330  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES1 

on  that  day  ?     In  short,  why  not  have  an  efficient 
police  system  to  correct  this  crying  evil  ? 

"  3d.  Spies.  The  spies  have  thus  far  slain  more 
than  any  other  arm  of  the  enemy.  We  hear  of  one, 
a  famous  guerilla,  being  condemned  to  die  in  Mis 
souri  ;  but  it  looks  like  a  mere  excuse  for  punish 
ing  other  crimes.  Several  have  been  imprisoned, 
some  compelled  to  take  the  oath ! !  but  not  one 
choked  to  death,  —  they  probably  being  practised  in 
swallowing  hard  oaths  !  We  see  accounts  from  Nor 
folk  of  three  rebel  mail  carriers  caught  passing  our 
lines  '  with  private  letters  only,  nothing  of  public 
interest,'  and  these  will  doubtless  be  leniently  dealt 
with  !  Who  can  say  what  dangerous  cipher  those 
private  letters  carried  ?  or  whether  the  real  object  of 
their  mission  —  a  short  military  dispatch  —  was  not 
swallowed  or  destroyed?  .  .  .  Shall  we  encourage 
spies  and  informers  by  continued  leniency  toward 
mail  carriers  from  our  lines  to  the  enemy's  ?  Wash 
ington  thought  it  necessary  to  hang  the  noble 
Andre.  Can  it  be  doubted  that  the  enemy  destroy 
without  any  compunction  any  of  our  spies  or  '  mail 
carriers'?  We  hang  a  man  for  the  doubtful  mili 
tary  crime  of  hauling  down  a  flag,  and  we  let  pass 
free,  or  punish  lightly,  men  who,  by  all  military 
usages,  and  by  the  dictates  of  common  sense,  de 
serve  the  heaviest  punishment.  Half  a  dozen  spies 
hanged  would  have  saved  as  many  thousand  lives, 
and  have  given  confidence  to  our  own  people  and 
soldiers  in  the  earnestness  of  their  leaders,  civil  and 
military.  It  is  not  too  late  to  begin. 


THE  PROSECUTION  OF  THE  WAR  331 

"  4th.  Robbers,  in  the  shape  of  contractors,  and 
of  army  officers  receiving  commissions  [on  purchases 
or  sales  for  the  government]  ;  in  short,  the  army 
worms  of  our  military  wheat.  Of  course,  eternal 
vigilance  is  the  only  remedy  for  this  disease.  How 
would  it  do,  as  a  sort  of  scarecrow  at  least,  to  insert 
a  clause  in  each  contract,  that  the  contractor  be 
comes  by  signing  it  subject  to  martial  law,  both  as 
to  his  person  and  property?  Without  legislation 
it  would  not  be  binding,  but  many,  nay,  most  of  the 
new  contracts  will  run  beyond  the  meeting  of  the 
next  Congress,  when  we  may  have  a  law  for  it,  and 
by  signing  such  a  contract,  agreeing  to  be  amenable, 
the  party  could  not  complain  that  the  law  was  ex 
post  facto. 

"  We  who  are  paying  taxes  feel  that  the  army 
contractors  and  the  commission-receiving  officers 
are  eating  us  up.  The  soldier  feels  it  in  his  bare 
feet  and  back,  and  sometimes  in  his  empty  stomach, 
and  a  hint  from  the  Department  would  surely  give 
us  such  a  law  during  the  first  week  of  the  session. 

o 

The  enemy  does  not  tolerate  drunken  generals, 
stragglers,  spies,  or  thieving  contractors.  Let  us 
remember  the  old  proverb,  'Fas  est  et  ab  hoste 
doceri.' " 

GOVERNOR  ANDREW  TO  J.  M.  FORBES. 

BOSTON,  September  13,  1862. 

MY  DEAR  Sin,  —  I  like  your  suggestions  very 
much,  but  I  venture  to  suggest :  1st,  that  having 
perused  the  report  of  the  testimony  .  .  .  printed 


332  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

...  by  order  of  the  Senate,  I  do  not  think  any 
part  of  the  disaster  of  Bull  Run  was  due  to  Colonel 
M.,  and  I  think  that  on  the  weight  of  the  evidence 
he  was  sick,  but  not  intoxicated.  .  .  . 

2d,  as  to  contractors.  I  think  the  department 
can  do  nothing  in  the  direction  you  propose ;  Con 
gress  might.  And  I  think  General  Meigs  might 
properly  be  appealed  to  for  an  opinion.  Stanton 
can  know  but  little  about  the  matter  directly.  And 
I  think  a  part  of  the  rage  against  him  is  due  to  the 
contractors  who  like  a  long  war  and  were  angry 
that  Stanton  tried  to  shorten  it. 

3d,  as  to  skulkers  and  spies.  Unless  the  General- 
in-Chief  is  in  earnest,  these  reforms  are  impossible. 
The  department  may  fulminate  regulations,  but  in 
vain,  as  long  as  imbecility,  disobedience,  evasion  of 
duty,  neglect  of  duty,  coldness  towards  the  cause 
itself,  distinguish  the  General-in-Chief. 

The  department  is  powerless  for  reform  while 
the  army  is  led  as  it  now  is  led  and  has  been  led 
hitherto.  It  can  only  give  rules  and  orders,  but  it 
remains  for  the  officers  in  command  to  enforce 
them.  The  President  persists  in  retaining  those 
who  will  not  do  what  you  and  I  think  zeal  and 
faithful  service  demand.  The  reform  is  only  pos 
sible  by  a  new  commander  in  the  field.  Thus  be 
lieving,  I  have  not  the  heart  to  write  of  these  details 
to  the  Secretary. 

I  am  ever  faithfully  and  most  respectfully  yours, 

JOHN  A.  ANDREW. 


THE  PROSECUTION  OF  THE  WAR  333 

One  of  the  great  difficulties  in  the  war  is  dealt 
with  in  the  following  passage  from  my  father's 
notes,  in  regard  to  his  work  in  recruiting  :  — 

"  After  the  first  enthusiasm  of  the  war  had  died 
out,  it  became  much  more  difficult  to  get  new  re 
cruits,  and  drafts  were  resorted  to ;  which  induced 
various  towns  called  upon  to  resort  to  large  boun 
ties.  This  money  element  naturally  drew  out  the 
worst  men  from  the  cities ;  many  of  the  rough  cus 
tomers  enlisting  with  the  intention  of  deserting  and 
getting  new  bounties.  At  one  time  when  recruiting 
for  the  Second  Cavalry,  we  had  in  a  single  day  a 
squad  of  about  a  dozen  recruits  brought  in  from 
New  York  by  the  Fall  River  steamer,  who  appeared 
at  our  recruiting  office  and  seemed  about  to  sign, 
when  a  whistle  from  their  leader  took  them  all  off 
and  we  saw  no  more  of  them.  This  experience  was 
more  or  less  repeated  as  long  as  the  war  lasted.  .  .  . 

"  During  this  period  Mr.  Amos  A.  Lawrence  and 
I  were  acting  together,  and  I  persuaded  him  to  join 
me  in  what  proved  to  be  a  very  successful  experi 
ment.  The  large  bounties  brought  into  the  field  a 
great  number  of  middle-men,  whose  business  was  to 
collect  recruits,  and  who  often  took  the  largest  part 
of  the  bounties  themselves.  Mr.  Lawrence  and  I, 
with  the  governor's  assent,  decided  to  become  our 
own  brokers,  and  got  an  order  that  any  engagement 
of  ours  should  be  accepted  by  the  draft  officers  as 
equivalent  to  men.  We  then  engaged  with  the 
large  towns,  agreeing  to  furnish  them  with  men  at 
the  best  prices  they  were  willing  to  pay;  so  en- 


334  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

abling  them  to  settle  their  share  of  the  draft  with 
out  supplying  any  more  men.  When  we  had  got 
a  considerable  fund,  we  engaged  the  men  directly 
ourselves,  or  through  our  enlisting  officers,  among 
whom  George  Quincy  was  prominent,  paying  them 
a  smaller  price  than  we  received  from  the  towns, 
but  giving  it  them  direct;  and  thus  they  got  a 
great  deal  more  benefit  out  of  it  than  when  they 
treated  with  the  brokers.  In  this  way  we  filled  up 
our  regiments  and  had  a  fund,  which  was  used  to 
continue  recruiting,  for  the  regimental  band,  and 
for  various  other  useful  purposes,  until  the  end  of 
the  war.  My  impression  is  that  we  enlisted  in  this 
way  over  two  thousand  men,  and  had  a  fund  of 
seven  or  eight  thousand  dollars  left." 

I  find  from  my  father's  files  of  letters  of  this 
time  that  he  must  have  done  a  very  inordinate 
amount  of  writing  in  regard  to  the  recruiting  of 
troops.  Some  of  his  correspondents  got  at  logger 
heads  with  one  another,  insisting  on  laying  com 
plaints  of  each  other  before  him,  as  to  trespassing 
on  the  other's  district.  This  was  one  of  many 
tedious  and  petty  vexations  that  troubled  him  in 
the  midst  of  his  intense  work. 

His  notes  continue  :  — 

"  Antietam,  with  its  drawn  game  claimed  as  a 
victory,  came  September  the  19th,  1862,  and,  after 
that,  a  period  of  reorganization  in  regard  to  our 
army  which  only  some  historian  can  record.  At 
this  time  the  public,  through  the  press  and  in  many 
other  ways,  took  a  hand  in  the  game,  and  had  great 


THE  PROSECUTION  OF  THE  WAR  335 

influence  on  the  action  not  only  of  Congress,  but 
still  more  upon  that  of  the  administration  of  Presi 
dent  Lincoln,  who  was  always  disposed  to  follow 
public  opinion  rather  than  to  be  a  bold  leader  in 
the  strife. 

"  After  trying  Burnside,  who  failed  at  Fredericks- 
burg  signally,  and  Hooker,  who  while  a  brave  and 
energetic  corps  commander  lost  his  head  completely 
at  Chancellorsville,  chaos  followed  till  Grant  was 
put  at  the  head  of  our  whole  army,  —  notwith 
standing  some  faults  which  alarmed  us  at  the  time 
when  he  was  thus  selected ;  but  he  had  the  strength 
to  overcome  them,  and  by  his  genius,  his  firmness, 
and  above  all  his  magnanimity  towards  other  officers 
around  him,  he  fully  justified  Lincoln  in  his  selec 
tion,  and  left  a  record  which  will  place  him  among 
the  great  men  of  the  world." 

The  letters  that  follow  indicate  the  anxieties,  the 
plans,  and  the  efforts  to  shape  the  course  of  events 
in  the  great  drama  that  was  going  on,  of  my  father 
and  of  some  of  his  correspondents  who  were  among 
the  most  influential  men  of  the  time.  A  great  step 
had  been  taken  in  September,  when  the  President 
issued  his  preliminary  proclamation  as  to  emancipa 
tion. 

W.    C.    BRYANT   TO   J.    M.    FORBES. 

OFFICE  OF  THE  EVENING  POST, 
NEW  YORK,  October  16,  1862. 

MY  DEAR  SIR,  —  What  your  friend  says  of  Grant 
may  be  the  truth,  so  far  as  he  is  acquainted  with 
his  history.  But  I  have  friends  who  profess  to  be 


336  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

acquainted  with  him,  and  who  declare  that  he  is 
now  a  temperate  man,  and  that  it  is  a  cruel  wrong 
to  speak  of  him  as  otherwise.  I  have  in  my  drawer 
a  batch  of  written  testimonials  to  that  effect.  He 
reformed  when  he  got  or  was  put  out  of  the  army, 
and  went  into  it  again  with  a  solemn  promise  of 
abstinence.  One  of  my  acquaintances  has  made  it 
his  special  business  to  inquire  concerning  his  habits, 
of  the  officers  who  have  recently  served  with  him  or 
under  him.  None  of  them  have  seen  him  drunk,  or 
seen  him  drink.  Their  general  testimony  is  that  he 
is  a  man  remarkably  insensible  to  danger,  active, 
and  adventurous. 

Whether  he  drinks  or  not,  he  is  certainly  a  fight 
ing  general,  and  a  successful  fighter,  which  is  a 
great  thing  in  these  days. 

W.    P.    FESSENDEN   TO   J.   M.    FORBES. 

PORTLAND,  November  13,  1862. 

MY  DEAR  SIR,  —  I  have  received  your  letter,  and 
also  the  newspaper  puff,  for  which  I  am  probably 
indebted  to  you.  McClellan's  removal  is  a  great 
step,  but  it  should  have  been  taken  a  year  ago. 
There  was  no  excuse  for  giving  him  the  command 
of  the  army  after  his  Yorktown  campaign,  and  the 
President  cannot  defend  himself  for  so  doing.  He 
knew  his  unfitness  and  admitted  it.  If  it  had  not 
been  proved  before,  the  failure  to  win  Antietam 
(for  he  did  not  win  it),  and  to  attack  Lee  on  the 
day  following,  demonstrated  either  his  incapacity  or 
his  treachery.  Fear  of  offending  the  Democracy 


THE  PROSECUTION  OF   THE  WAR  337 

has  been  at  the  bottom  of  all  our  disasters.  I  am 
not  clear  that  the  result  of  the  elections  is  not  for 
tunate  for  the  country,  for  it  has  taught  the  Presi 
dent  that  he  has  nothing  to  look  for  in  that  quarter, 
a  fact  which  any  sensible  man  might  have  seen. 
The  only  way  to  get  the  support  of  the  Democracy 
is  to  show  that  you  don't  fear  them.  It  is  a  mis 
take  to  suppose  that  you  will  gain  anything  of  such 
people  by  conciliation,  or  by  admitting  them  to 
your  councils. 

As  to  the  cabinet,  I  have  no  belief  that  there  will 
be  any  change.  Seward  will  never  yield  his  place 
willingly,  and  the  President  never  will  ask  him  to  do 
so.  But,  whatever  may  happen,  no  man  could  be  of 
much  use  in  a  cabinet  office,  for  no  man  could  carry 
out  his  own  views.  You  cannot  change  the  Presi 
dent's  character  or  conduct,  unfortunately;  he 
remained  long  enough  at  Springfield,  surrounded  by 
toadies  and  office-seekers,  to  persuade  himself  that 
he  was  specially  chosen  by  the  Almighty  for  this 
great  crisis,  and  well  chosen.  This  conceit  has  never 
yet  been  beaten  out  of  him,  and  until  it  is,  no 
human  wisdom  can  be  of  much  avail.  I  see  nothing 
for  it  but  to  let  the  ship  of  state  drift  along,  hoping 
that  the  current  of  public  opinion  may  bring  it 
safely  into  port.  For  myself,  I  can  only  say  that 
there  is  no  political  calamity  I  should  look  upon 
with  so  much  dread  as  the  being  asked  to  share 
the  responsibility  of  guiding  it.  I  have  neither  the 
strength  nor  the  wisdom  requisite,  and  if  I  had,  it 
would  be  useless.  No,  my  friend,  I  can,  perhaps, 


338  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

render  my  country  some  service  where  I  am.  In  the 
cabinet  I  could  no  nothing,  and  no  friend  of  mine 
should  ever  wish  to  see  me  there. 


TO  W.  P.  FESSEKDEN. 

BOSTON,  November  15, 1862. 

MY  DEAR  SIR,  —  Your  note  received.  I  must 
differ  from  you  about  the  President.  He  has  been 
in  the  hands  of  a  vacillating,  undecided  man  like 
Seward ! 

With  your  decided  opinions,  if  you  were  once  in 
the  cabinet,  he  and  aU  the  political  aspirants  there 
would  form  into  line  and  march  to  your  music. 
Even  Chase  would  be  glad  to  see  some  one  else  put 
at  the  head  to  take  the  responsibility.  His  opinions 
are  firm  enough,  but  he  lacks  your  uncompromising 
directness  of  will.  The  only  possible  doubt  is  your 
health,  and  you  may  as  well  die  at  the  head  of  the 
nation  a  few  months  hence,  after  saving  it,  as  at 
the  head  of  the  Senate  a  few  years  hence,  fighting 
the  compromisers  and  rebels  combined. 

A  prominent  New  York  man  ascribes,  in  a  private 
letter,  the  late  failure  there1  to  Seward  and  his 
friends,  and  says  the  President  ought  to  know  and 
act  upon  it.  He  adds,  "  The  accession  of  Mr.W.  P.  F. 
would  delight  me."  He  [my  correspondent]  is  a  man 
who,  perhaps,  next  to  you,  ought  to  be  there  himself, 
though  known  at  the  bar  rather  than  in  public  life. 

1  Referring  to  the  defeat  of  the  Republican  party  in  New  York, 
and  the  election  of  Seymour,  the  Democratic  candidate  for  governor. 
—  ED. 


THE  PROSECUTION  OF  THE  WAR  339 

TO  JOSHUA   BATES,  OF  BARING  BEOS.    &   CO.,  LONDON. 

Boston,  November  11,  1862. 

MY  DEAR  MR.  BATES,  —  Nothing  from  you  lately ; 
and  I  suppose  even  your  steady  nerves  and  heart  are 
shaken  by  our  long  supineness.  We  have  awaked 
at  last,  and  if  we  had  only  a  William  Pitt  to  put 
over  our  cabinet,  we  should  be  all  right. 

Mr.  Chase,  I  hear,  shows  some  signs  of  returning 
sanity  by  inquiring  (outside  of  the  clique  who  had 
his  ear)  as  to  his  future  course.  Our  friend  Hooper 
has  a  good  deal  to  answer  for  in  leading  him  into 
the  legal  tender  labyrinth ;  it  will  take  wiser  heads 
to  guide  him  out.  We  are  not  quite  lost  yet,  and 
if  the  report  due  next  month  shows  that  he  has 
sounded  the  depths  of  the  currency  issue  as  a 
resource,  and  is  coming  back  to  sound  principles  of 
finance,  we  may,  with  large  revenues  from  our  tax 
bill  (reported  to  be  very  large),  and  with  some  mil 
itary  vigor,  still  save  ourselves  from  utter  ruin,  — 
financially,  I  mean. 

Somehow  or  other,  in  spite  of  weak-kneed  friends 
and  open  traitors  at  home,  and  a  sharp  enemy  out 
side,  we  can  and  will  keep  the  old  ship  together. 

To  fail  now  is  to  establish  the  most  dangerous  mil 
itary  government  for  our  neighbors  that  the  world 
ever  saw.  Five  or  six  millions  of  whites  despising 
labor,  and  having  a  black  slave  race  to  work  for 
them,  while  they  fight !  If  we  disarm,  with  such  a 
neighbor  unconquered,  and  our  so-called  democracy 
ready  to  ally  itself  with  them,  we  may  as  well  give 
up  our  government  at  once  and  return  to  feudalism. 


340  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

I  hope  you  will  give  me  the  benefit  of  a  hint  now 
and  then  from  your  deep  stores  of   financial  expe 
rience,  and  am,  with  best  regards  to  Mrs.  Bates, 
Yours,  very  truly,  J.  M.  FORBES. 

My  father's  notes  of  this  period  go  on  to  say :  — 
"  Besides  the  military  situation  during  1862,  came 
the  alarm  in  regard  to  the  extension  of  the  system 
of  outfitting  cruisers  against  us  in  European  ports, 
—  which  had  got  to  sea  and  were  driving  our  ships 
out  of  the  carrying  trade  ;  and  especially  the  build 
ing  of  two  powerful  ironclad  warships  by  Laird,  at 
Liverpool,  which  not  only  threatened  our  cities  and 
ports  on  the  coast,  but  seemed  to  render  foreign 
intervention  probable.  My  relations  with  the  Navy 
Department  and  with  Mr.  Fox,  the  assistant  secre 
tary,  who  carried  on  the  executive  work  there, 
were  very  close,  and  led  to  a  good  deal  of  consulta 
tion  by  letter  and  otherwise ;  which  communications 
were  kept  very  carefully  to  ourselves." 

I  give  here  three  of  these  communications,  show 
ing  how  alive  to  the  danger  the  Navy  Department 
had  become,  and  how  unprepared  the  northern  sea 
ports  were  to  withstand  any  attack  from  ironclads : 

G.  V.  FOX   TO    J.  M.  FORBES. 

NAVY  DEPARTMENT,  November  22,  1862. 

DEAR  SIR,  —  ...  As  to  our  defenses,  I  believe 
this  is  about  the  truth.  The  Alabama  can  be  kept 
out  by  our  present  forts.  She  is  doing  a  better 
business,  with  less  risk,  than  attacking  Boston.  No 


THE  PROSECUTION  OF  THE   WAR  341 

forts  can  keep  out  ironclads.  We  must  have  obstruc 
tions  easily  raised.  There  are  no  big  guns  to  spare. 
Parties  cannot  make  guns  who  are  not  experienced. 
We  have  started  half  a  dozen  new  foundries  in  New 
England  the  last  year,  and  got  only  one  good  gun. 
Any  man  for  a  year  past,  and  now,  who  wishes  a 
contract  for  big  guns  can  have  it.  No  one  has  ever 
been  refused.  As  to  ironclads  it  is  the  same. 
Every  one  is  invited  and  has  been,  and  no  one 
capable  of  doing  the  work  has  been  refused.  So 
with  marine  engines.  We  will  build  a  vessel  for 
every  party  who  will  take  an  engine.  Washington 
is  reported  to  have  said,  "  In  peace,  prepare  for 
war."  We  didn't,  and  here  we  are.  It  is  of  no 
use  to  sacrifice  anybody ;  we  are  caught  uprepared, 
and  must  pay  for  it.  ...  We  are  building  some 
wooden-bottom  turret  ships  in  the  navy  yards  to 
carry  four  15-inch  guns.  We  fired  the  15-inch 
gun  at  nine  inches  of  iron.  It  did  not  penetrate, 
but  it  shook  the  whole  affair  nearly  to  pieces.  We 
are  in  the  hands  of  the  contractors,  who  are  doing 
all  they  can,  but  it  is  far  short  of  public  expectation. 
In  the  mean  time,  if  harbor  obstructions  are  not 
provided,  our  cities  are  not  safe  against  ironclads. 

THE   SAME   TO   THE   SAME. 

NAVY  DEPARTMENT,  December  9,  1862. 

MY  DEAR  SIR,  —  I  have  your  letter  of  the  3d 
inst.  The  matter  of  purchase  of  vessels  fitting  out 
in  England  has  frequently  been  under  discussion, 
and,  as  a  matter  of  precaution,  is  expensive,  as  it 


342  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

would  involve  us  in  unlimited  purchases  without 
entirely  curing  the  evil,  since  every  steamer  could 
not  be  obtained.  There  are  but  very  few  of  the 
English  steamers  that  escape  our  cruisers.  I  think 
it  safe  to  say  that  not  one  in  twenty  has  landed  a 
cargo  and  returned  safely  to  England. 

The  Kate,  an  iron  steamer,  has  been  the  most 
successful,  and  she  could  not  cross  the  ocean.  She 
has  just  been  lost  at  Wilmington  by  running  into 
the  obstructions  at  New  Inlet.  With  regard  to  two 
ironclads  (one  at  Glasgow  and  one  at  Liverpool), 
I  think  it  very  important  to  purchase  them  if  they 
can  be  obtained  for  money.  Mr.  Welles  favors  the 
idea,  and  Mr.  Seward  simply  urges  it.  If  Mr. 
Upton  could  do  this,  I  think  it  would  be  well  to 
send  him  out.  If  you  will  talk  the  matter  over 
with  him,  and  it  seems  feasible,  Mr.  Upton  had  bet 
ter  come  on.  No  one  but  Mr.  Seward,  Mr.  Welles, 
and  ourselves  need  know  it.  Their  vessels  fitting 
to  run  the  blockade  can  be  disposed  of,  but  the  iron 
clads  (if  rumors  in  regard  to  them  be  true)  are  a 
more  serious  matter,  deserving  of  instant  action  at 
any  price,  since  we  have  not  a  port  North  that  can 
resist  an  ironclad  of  very  moderate  power. 

THE   SAME  TO  THE  SAME. 

NAVY  DEPARTMENT,  December  19,  1862. 

DEAR  SIR,  —  I  have  yours  of  17th  inst.  I  fancy 
there  can  be  no  ironclads  for  the  rebels  put  into 
the  water  before  May.  But  they  require  strict 
watching  and  ample  measures  to  guard  against  their 


THE  PROSECUTION  OF  THE  WAR  343 

coming  over  here.  Mr.  Seward  is  of  the  opinion 
that  the  English  government  are  very  anxious  for 
us  to  come  into  their  market  for  the  purchase  of 
vessels,  that  we  may  be  put  upon  an  equal  footing 
with  the  South.  The  reclamations  in  the  matter  of 
the  Alabama  have  disturbed  them  very  much.  With 
this  view  of  the  matter,  Mr.  Welles  rather  inclines 
to  some  doubt  about  making  any  purchases.  I 
think  you  and  Mr.  Upton  better  come  on  after  the 
holidays ;  it  would  be  good  to  discuss  that  and  other 
matters. 

When  a  superintending  Providence  deprives  us 
of  all  means  of  recruiting  our  armies,  I  believe  we 
will  call  upon  those  who,  at  least,  will,  by  their 
desertion,  paralyze  the  rebels.  The  President  re 
marked  to  me  the  other  night  that  he  was  very 
anxious  to  have  us  take  Sumter,  and  that  he  would 
man  it  with  negroes.  When  the  Nahant  leaves,  we 
shall  have  the  number  of  ironclads  fixed  upon  as 
the  least  number  to  go  into  Charleston.  That  vessel 
will  not  probably  leave  before  the  first  of  January. 

There  is  a  good  deal  of  depression  felt  at  the 
repulse  at  Fredericksburg,  and  the  President  is 
exceedingly  disturbed;  but  it  seems  to  me  that, 
looking  over  the  whole  ground,  the  movements 
contemplated  West,  and  the  probability  of  getting 
possession  of  the  remaining  ports  South,  we  should 
hardly  deserve  success  if  we  allowed  our  faith  to 
waver  now.  It  is  a  matter  of  regret,  however,  that 
the  whole  military  force  of  the  country  is  not  used 
to  expel  the  enemy  from  Virginia. 

I/ 


344  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

Of  this  period  my  father  says  in  his  notes :  ~ 
"  It  was  the  darkest  time  of  the  war,  though  its 
grand  turning  point  (outside  of  what  the  army  and 
navy  could  do)  was  approaching  in  the  Proclamation 
of  Emancipation,"  —  the  final  proclamation  pro 
mised  in  the  preliminary  one  of  September,  1862. 

The  following  letter  from  Mr.  Sedgwick  gives  a 
lively  account  of  the  state  of  feeling  in  Washington 
at  the  time  of  writing.  It  led  to  my  father's  draw 
ing  up  an  address  to  the  President  from  the  presi 
dential  electors  of  1860,  and  forwarding  it  to  Mr. 
Sedgwick,  who  obtained  the  required  signatures, 
and  then  sent  it  on  to  Mr.  Lincoln.  It  is  inserted 
in  its  place  below. 

WASHINGTON,  22d  December,  1862. 

MY  DEAR  MR.  FORBES,  —  I  have  shown  your 
letter  (copy)  to  Mr.  Fessenden  to  several  conserva 
tive  gentlemen  of  my  acquaintance.  They  all  agree 
in  saying  that  it  would  be  well  to  send  on  a  strong 
delegation  of  clergy  and  laity  to  urge  on  the  Presi 
dent.  Some  doubt  his  intention  to  issue  the  procla 
mation  of  1st  January;  I  do  not.  Many  assert, 
more  fear,  that  it  will  be  essentially  modified  from 
what  is  promised.  I  do  not  fear  this ;  but  what  I 
do  fear  is,  that  he  will  stop  with  the  proclamation 
and  take  no  active  and  vigorous  measures  to  insure 
its  efficacy.  I  say  he  will  issue  it,  because  it  is  his 
own  offspring,  which  Seward  tried  hard  to  strangle 
at  its  birth,  and  failed  to  do  it.  If  the  President 
don't  tell  you  all  about  it  some  time,  I  will,  as  I 


THE  PROSECUTION  OF  THE  WAR  345 

heard  the  story  from  the  chief  himself.  Judge 
Kelly  told  me  this  evening  he  had  just  come  from 
Stanton,  who  told  him  that  the  President  and  Burn- 
side  had  been  there  but  a  little  while  before,  and 
this  subject  coming  up,  the  President  said  "  that  he 
could  not  stop  the  Proclamation  if  he  would,  and  he 
would  not  if  he  could ;  that  just  as  soon  as  the  first 
of  January  dawned  it  would  be  issued."  So  I  can 
not  doubt  that  it  will  be  issued.  There  are  other 
facts  within  my  knowledge  which  convince  me  that 
it  will  certainly  go  forth.  Every  conceivable  influ 
ence  has  been  brought  to  bear  upon  him  to  induce 
him  to  withhold  or  modify,  —  threats,  entreaties,  all 
sorts  of  humbugs,  but  he  is  firm  as  a  mule. 

Now  if  Banks  can  start  from  Mobile  or  New 
Orleans  with  a  sufficient  army,  or  send  Butler, 
which  will  be  equally  well,  perhaps,  armed  with  this 
proclamation,  and  enlist  every  able-bodied,  willing, 
loyal  negro,  as  he  progresses  into  the  country,  until 
he  has  100,000  of  them  under  arms,  the  great 
work  will  be  accomplished.  If  Banks  was  sent 
South  for  some  such  purpose,  the  expedition  is  a 
sensible  one ;  if  not,  it  is  pure  strategy,  and  not 
worth,  in  the  aggregate,  so  much  as  one  of  the 
rotten  ships  in  which  it  was  embarked.  I  say  by 
all  means  come  on  and  be  here  in  force  the  last  of 
this  month.  Be  ready  to  shout  Hallelujah  on  the 
morning  of  1st  January,  and  let  the  President  know 
that  he  is  to  have  sympathy  and  support.  By  all 
means,  put  him  up  to  practical  measures  to  make  it 
successful.  Tell  him  the  world  will  pardon  his 


346  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

crimes,  and  his  stories  even,  if  he  only  makes  the 
proclamation  a  success,  and  that  if  he  fails  he  will 
be  gibbeted  in  history  as  a  great,  long-legged,  awk 
ward,  country  pettifogger,  without  brains  or  back 
bone. 

We  have  had  a  nice  row  in  the  cabinet.  The 
Senate  had  a  secret  caucus  and  resolved  to  get  rid  of 
the  President's  evil  genius,  Seward.  Preston  King, 
fearing  Seward,  loose,  would  endanger  his  prospects 
for  senator,  slipped  out  and  told  Seward  all  about 
it.  Seward  tendered  his  resignation  Wednesday 
evening.  By  Thursday  morning  his  friends  began 
to  pour  in,  to  threaten  the  President  if  he  accepted 
it.  The  world  in  general  only  found  it  out  on  Fri 
day.  Chase,  like  a  good  boy,  on  Saturday  went  out 
to  bring  little  wandering  Willie  back.  The  tele 
graph  is  forbidden  to  carry  the  startling  news  to 
the  country,  except,  now,  to  my  Lord  Thurlow  *  and 
some  others ;  and  on  Monday  all  goes  "  merry  as  a 
marriage  bell"  again.  So  the  Senate  is  snubbed, 
Seward  is  more  powerful  than  ever,  Chase's  radical 
friends  are  disgusted  that  he  has  been  used  to  save 
Seward  from  his  folly,  and  the  great  chasm  into 
which  the  administration  was  to  fall  is  bridged. 
Vive  la  Humbug ! 

The  electors'  letter  above  referred  to  was  as  fol 
lows  :  — 

1  Thurlow  Weed,  editor  of  the  Albany  Journal,  Mr.  Seward's 
right-hand  man.  —  ED. 


THE   PROSECUTION  OF  THE  WAR  347 

December  24,  1862. 

To  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN,  President  of   the  United 

States,  Washington :  — 

Sir,  —  The  undersigned,  as  electors,  performed 
two  years  ago  the  pleasant  duty  of  certifying  to 
your  appointment  to  the  chief  magistracy  of  this 
country,  by  the  choice  of  the  people. 

Believing  that  the  approaching  new  year  brings 
with  it  a  crisis  in  the  life  of  our  nation,  they  beg 
leave  to  congratulate  you  upon  your  having  begun 
the  greatest  act  in  American  history,  the  emancipa 
tion  of  3,000,000  of  blacks  and  of  5,000,000  of 
whites  from  the  power  of  an  aristocratic  class. 

It  is  admitted  upon  all  sides  that  the  transfer  of 
three  millions  of  slaves  from  the  productive  force 
of  the  rebels  to  our  scale  in  the  balance  would  in 
stantly  end  the  rebellion ;  it  follows  that  each  slave 
so  transferred  will  proportionately  contribute  to  that 
end. 

It  is  only  a  question  of  time  when  emancipation 
must  take  place,  and  it  is  believed  that  no  time 
can  ever  occur  so  safe  from  unnecessary  violence  as 
when  the  slaves  have  the  strength  of  the  Union  to 
rally  behind,  and  when  a  large  army  of  rebels  can 
and  ought  to  be  thus  withdrawn  from  opposing  the 
laws,  to  the  more  fitting  work  of  keeping  order 
around  their  own  homes. 

For  these  and  other  reasons  the  undersigned  be 
lieve  that  emancipation  is  the  weapon  which,  effi 
ciently  used,  can  not  only  strike  at  the  heart  of  the 
Rebellion,  but  lay  the  foundation  for  a  true  and 
permanent  republic ;  a  consummation  even  more 


348  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

beneficent  to  the  moral  and  material  interests  of  the 
people  of  the  South  than  to  those  of  the  Northern 
people. 

They  therefore  earnestly  pray  you  to  complete 
now  your  great  work  by  taking  every  possible  mea 
sure  to  carry  into  practical  effect  the  promise  of  your 
Proclamation  of  22d  September,  and  especially  by 
demanding  imperatively  of  every  person  in  the  mili 
tary,  naval,  and  civil  service  of  your  government  to 
obey  strictly  the  regulations  by  which  you  will  en 
force  your  new  settled  policy. 

They  believe  that  by  so  doing  you  will  place  your 
self  among  the  great  benefactors  of  your  country 
and  of  the  human  race,  and  that  you  will  live  in 
future  ages  by  the  side  of  the  Father  of  his  Country 
—  George  Washington. 

Respectfully  submitted,  [ELECTORS.] 

With  the  view  of  placing  the  Proclamation  of 
Emancipation  in  the  hands  of  the  negroes  them 
selves,  my  father  had  1,000,000  copies  printed  on 
small  slips,  one  and  a  half  inches  square,  put  into 
packages  of  fifty  each,  and  distributed  among  the 
Northern  soldiers  at  the  front,  who  scattered  them 
about  among  the  blacks,  while  on  the  march.  Sum- 
ner  approved  the  idea,  as  will  be  seen  by  the  follow 
ing  letter :  — 

WASHINGTON,  Xmas  Day,  1862. 

MY  DEAR  FORBES,  —  Your  letter  of  23d  was  on 
my  table  when  I  returned  from  an  interview  with 
the  President,  where  much  had  been  said  about  the 
Proclamation.  He  is  now  considering  how  to  pro- 


THE  PROSECUTION  OF  THE  WAR  349 

claim  on  1st  January.  It  will  be  done.  He  says 
of  himself  that  he  is  hard  to  be  moved  from  any 
position  which  he  has  taken.  He  let  me  know  last 
evening  of  his  plan  to  employ  African  troops  to  hold 
the  Mississippi  River,  and  also  other  posts  in  the 
warm  climates,  so  that  our  white  soldiers  may  be 
employed  elsewhere.  He  seemed  much  in  earnest. 

I  did  not  write  at  once  on  the  receipt  of  your  let 
ter  of  18th  December,  because  it  found  me  exces 
sively  occupied,  and  because  I  had  been  already 
assured  by  the  President  with  regard  to  the  Procla 
mation.  I  see  no  objection  to  printing  the  extract 
from  Stephens l  on  the  sheet  with  the  Proclamation ; 
and  I  like  much  the  idea  of  distributing  the  Pro 
clamation  through  the  army.  I  have  exhorted  the 
President  to  put  into  the  next  Proclamation  some 
sentiment  of  justice  and  humanity.  He  promised 
at  once  to  consider  it. 

Why  not  send  to  all  the  hospitals,  camps,  posts  ? 
The  more  the  better. 

Ever  yours,  CHARLES  SUMNER. 

It  would  seem  that  this  letter  must  have  crossed 
that  from  my  father,  which  follows  :  — 

TO  THE  HON.   CHARLES   SUMNER. 

BOSTON,  December  27,  1862. 

MY  DEAR  MR.  SUMNER, — I  had  hoped  to  have 
sent  you  to-day  communications  to  the  President 

1  "  This  stone  (slavery),  which  was  rejected  by  the  first  builders,  is 
become  the  chief  stone  of  the  corner  in  our  new  edifice."  (Speech  of 
Alex.  H.  Stephens,  Vice-President  of  the  Confederate  States,  delivered 
March  31, 1861.) 


350  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

from  the  rest  of  our  electors  (except  Mr.  Morey, 
absent  in  Europe)  all  indorsing  the  Proclamation  and 
begging  for  its  enforcement;  but  the  electors  are  so 
widely  separated,  from  Nantucket  to  the  Connecticut, 
that  concert  of  action  is  difficult.  Whittier  will 
probably  write  a  letter  instead  of  signing  with  us. 

May  I  ask  of  you  the  favor  to  present  the  letters 
already  sent  you,  carefuUy  including  Judge  Chap 
man's  cordial  assent. 

I  sincerely  hope  that  you  and  others  will  have 
sufficient  influence  with  the  President  to  insure  his 
giving  us  on  1st  January  such  a  Proclamation  as 
will  only  need  the  "  General  Orders  "  of  his  subordi 
nates  to  carry  into  effect  not  only  emancipation  but 
all  the  fruits  thereof,  in  the  perfect  right  to  use  the 
negro  in  every  respect  as  a  man,  and  consequently 
as  a  soldier,  sailor,  or  laborer,  wherever  he  can  most 
effectually  strike  a  blow  against  the  enemy. 

It  seems  to  me  very  important  that  the  ground  of 
"military  necessity"  should  be  even  more  squarely 
taken  than  it  was  on  22d  September.  Many  of  our 
strongest  Republicans,  some  even  of  our  Lincoln 
electors,  have  constitutional  scruples  in  regard  to 
emancipation  upon  any  other  ground,  and  with  them 
must  be  joined  a  large  class  of  Democrats,  and  self- 
styled  "Conservatives,"  whose  support  is  highly 
desirable,  and  ought  to  be  secured  where  it  can  be 
done  without  any  sacrifice  of  principle. 

I  know  that  you  and  many  others  would  like  to 
have  it  done  upon  higher  ground,  but  the  main 
thing  is  to  have  it  done  strongly,  and  to  have  it 


THE  PROSECUTION  OF  THE  WAR  351 

so  backed  up  by  public  opinion  that  it  will  strike 
the  telling  blow,  at  the  rebellion  and  at  slavery 
together,  which  we  so  much  need. 

I  buy  and  eat  my  bread  made  from  the  flour 
raised  by  the  hard-working  farmer;  it  is  certainly 
satisfactory  that  in  so  doing  I  am  helping  the 
farmer  clothe  his  children,  but  my  motive  is  self- 
preservation,  not  philanthropy  or  justice.  Let  the 
President  free  the  slaves  upon  the  same  principle, 
and  so  state  it  that  the  masses  of  our  people  can 
easily  understand  it. 

He  will  thus  remove  constitutional  scruples  from 
some,  and  will  draw  to  himself  the  support  of  a  very 
large  class  who  do  not  want  to  expend  their  brothers 
and  sons  and  money  for  the  benefit  of  the  negro, 
but  who  will  be  very  glad  to  see  Northern  life  and 
treasure  saved  by  any  practical  measure,  even  if  it 
does  incidentally  an  act  of  justice  and  benevolence. 

Now  I  would  not  by  any  means  disclaim  the 
higher  motives,  but  where  so  much  prejudice  exists, 
I  would  eat  my  bread  to  sustain  my  life ;  I  would 
take  the  one  short,  sure  method  of  preserving  the 
national  life,  —  and  say  little  about  any  other  mo 
tive.  .  .  . 

Forgive  me  for  writing  so  much,  and  for  asking 
you  to  try  to  urge  my  poor  ideas  upon  the  President, 
but  I  feel  strongly  that  we  all  need  encouragement 
and  hope ;  and  a  good  strong  Proclamation  full  of 
vigor,  of  freedom,  and  of  democracy,  would  almost 
compensate  us  for  the  dreadful  repulse  of  Fredericks- 
burg.  Truly  yours,  J.  M.  FORBES. 


352  JOHN  MURRAY  FORBES 

Mr.  Sumner  writes  the  next  day  :  — 

WASHINGTON,  2&A  December,  1862. 

MY  DEAR  FORBES,  —  Last  evening  I  handed  to 
the  President  a  memorial  from  clergymen,  calling  on 
him  to  stand  by  his  Proclamation,  reading  it  to  him 
aloud. 

I  then  handed  him  your  slip  Audax,  which  he 
commenced  reading. 

Then  a  slip  from  a  Boston  paper,  advertising  a 
musical  celebration  in  honor  of  the  Proclamation, 
1st  January,  with  all  the  names,  yours  among  the 
rest. 

Then  the  unsigned  address1  from  the  electors, 
which  he  proceeded  to  read  aloud. 

I  then  read  to  him  Mr.  Chapman's  letter,  which  I 
enforced  by  saying  that  he  was  now  a  very  able 
judge  of  our  Supreme  Court,2  once  a  Hunker,  and 
not  much  of  my  way  of  thinking  in  times  past. 

I  then  proceeded  to  dwell  on  the  importance  and 
grandeur  of  the  act,  and  how  impatient  we  all  are 
that  it  should  be  done  in  the  way  to  enlist  the  most 
sympathy  and  to  stifle  opposition.  On  his  account 
I  urged  that  it  should  be  a  military  decree,  counter 
signed  by  the  Secretary  of  War,  and  that  it  should 
have  something  in  it  showing  that  though  an  act  of 
military  necessity  and  just  self-defense,  it  was  also 
an  act  of  justice  and  humanity,  which  must  have  the 
blessings  of  a  benevolent  God. 

1  This  was  an  address  slightly  different  in  form  from  that  sent 
through  Mr.  Sedgwick.  —  ED. 
a  Afterwards  the  chief  justice.  —  ED. 


THE  PROSECUTION  OF   THE  WAR  353 

The  President  says  that  he  could  not  stop  the 
Proclamation  if  he  would,  and  he  would  not  if  he 
could.  Burnside  was  present  at  this  remark. 

I  find  Stanton  unusually  sanguine  and  confident. 
He  says  that  he  shall  have  200,000  negroes  under 
arms  before  June,  holding  the  Mississippi  River  and 
garrisoning  the  ports,  so  that  our  white  soldiers  can 
go  elsewhere.  The  President  accepts  this  idea. 

Let  the  music  sound,  and  the  day  be  celebrated. 


BLECTROTYPED  AND  PRINTED 
BY  H.  O.   HOUGHTON  AND  CO. 


fiiberffbe 


CAMBRIDGE,  MASS.,  V.  S.  A. 


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